New Zealand director Taika Waititi has officially confirmed that his untitled Star Wars film, in development since 2020, has been put on hold. The filmmaker made the statement during the promotional campaign for his new movie Klara and the Sun, acknowledging that the joint project with Lucasfilm is officially frozen while he shifts his focus to producing other pictures. Adding with irony that "even ice ages come to an end sooner or later," the director refrained from providing specific timelines for a potential return to the franchise.
Official Pause Instead of Cancellation
It is important to emphasize the wording: this is a freeze, not a cancellation of the project. Waititi did not announce the removal of the film from production or hand over the script rights to anyone else—he merely confirmed that work has been halted at the current stage. Such a status leaves Lucasfilm and the studio with the option to return to the material in the future, while effectively relieving the director of timeline obligations. For a franchise that has actively expanded its cinematic universe through standalone films in recent years, this means one of the anticipated projects is facing an indefinite delay.
Seeking a Balance That Didn't Work Out
Previously, the filmmaker planned to bring back the lighthearted humor of the original trilogy's first films, creating a standalone story far away from the familiar Skywalker conflict. The concept envisioned a comedic delivery characteristic of Waititi's work, but attempts to find a balance between the high stakes typical of Star Wars and his signature comedic tone reportedly hit a dead end. This internal contradiction in the creative vision appears to be one of the reasons the project never reached filming since 2020.
The Shadow of Klara and the Sun's Flop
The news of the freeze coincided with a subdued—and according to some critics, negative—reception of his adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun, directed by Waititi himself. Critics blasted the film for what they considered an ill-fated shift in focus toward eccentric comedy, which observers note only intensified questions about the director's ability to maintain the tone of serious or large-scale projects. Although Waititi did not directly link the two events, the chronological coincidence makes the context ambiguous and reinforces the sense that the Star Wars hiatus stems from a broader reassessment of his creative priorities.
What's Next: Four Projects in the Portfolio
Currently, the New Zealand director's portfolio includes about four other projects that he intends to tackle in the near future. Thus, instead of working on Star Wars, Waititi is effectively redirecting his efforts toward his own slate of pictures, while the fate of the untitled Lucasfilm movie remains open. So far, neither the director nor the studio has presented new dates, a change in creative team, or a script rewrite—the project formally exists but remains in a state of waiting that, by the author's own admission, could drag on indefinitely.
