STAR WARS Movie News Update! Kevin Feige's Project Scrapped and Taika Waititi Wants to Star in His Own Film
We’ve got an update on a couple of Star Wars film projects to share with you today that were recently shared in a recent article from Variety.
The first bit of news we learn is that the Star Wars film being developed by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is no longer moving forward. It’s not in active development at Lucasfilm.
This is a shame to learn because it’s one of the many Star Wars projects that was announced that fans were actually looking forward to, especially since Feige is such a huge Star Wars fan. He previously explained that his love of Star Wars was his gateway to Marvel, saying:
“I knew I wanted to work on these types of movies [Marvel movies], mainly because of this movie, [Star Wars]. … I was the kid that kept playing with Star Wars toys maybe a little bit longer than the other kids did? So, I was 10 years old when Jedi came out. I had all of those [toys]. The ‘Power of the Force’ line came out in ’85, so there hadn’t had been a Star Wars movie in a couple of years, and as you know, that’s when Kenner stopped making the ‘Power of the Force’ line. It was the last line they did.”
The movie was moving forward in May of 2022 when screenwriter Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) said that he started working on the script for Feige. “I’m enjoying having the freedom on that to do something that’s not necessarily a sequel or anything.” But, I guess we can now scratch that film off the list of Star Wars films we were hoping to see.
Then there’s the Star Wars movie that Taika Waititi has been developing, and if it actually ends up happening, it will be the first movie to go into development since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released. The report reveals that Waititi will also be casting himself in the film, which I guess isn’t surprising as he’s appeared in pretty much all of the films that he’s made.
At one point, I was looking forward to this movie, but then after the mess of Thor: Love and Thunder, I’m not so sure. I hope that it’s good! I just don’t want to see an overly kooky Star Wars movie. In a previous interview, Waititi talked about wanting to do something new and different with the franchise, saying:
“Look, I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand. I don’t think that I’m any use in the Star Wars universe making a film where everyone’s like, ‘Oh great, well that’s the blueprints to the Millennium Falcon, ah that’s Chewbacca’s grandmother.’ That all stands alone, that’s great, though I would like to take something new and create some new characters and just expand the world, otherwise it feels like it’s a very small story.”
As for other projects, it’s also said that the studio is committed to a Star Wars movie from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Saving Face, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Ms. Marvel) with a script being written by Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) and Justin Britt-Gibson (Counterpart).
As for Rian Johnson’s Star Wars trilogy project, it’s very clear that Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm still want him to make his movies, but it’s all about waiting for his schedule to open back up to do it.
Then there was Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie, which is also no longer in active development.
Lucasfilm and Disney will start to unveil all of their big Star Wars movie plans at Star Wars Celebration convention in London the weekend of April 7th. So, stay tuned for that!