The Next Star Wars Movie Is A Comedy?
A new rumor says we'll soon see a Star Wars movie taking a comedic approach.
This article is more than 2 years old
So far, we know that Taika Waititi is directing and co-writing a Star Wars movie with Krysty Wilson-Cairns. We know that it’s definitely coming, but that it’s definitely not his next project. This is absolute, since we know that he is currently in Australia filming Thor: Love and Thunder, his follow-up for Marvel to Thor: Ragnarok. While we know all these things, they are the only things we know. We don’t know what his movie will be about. We don’t know who will star in his Star Wars story, where it will take place, or when we’ll get to see it. However, insider Daniel Richtman has heard one short and simple word: comedy.
That’s right. The insider has told his Patreon page that Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie will be a comedy. Of course, this bit of information feels more like another question instead of an answer. What does comedy mean? It seems like a natural assumption that Waititi’s Star Wars will have some light-hearted humor to it. Does that count? Waititi is not new to the universe. He worked on The Mandalorian. So he knows that we expect action and adventure thrown in there as well.
The writer and director for the new Star Wars has also worked on projects like What We Do In The Shadows, both the television series and movie. He gave us Jojo Rabbit, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and Thor: Ragnarok. These projects have all been wildly different. Shadows is a mockumentary with vampires, Jojo Rabbit has Hitler as the main character. Despite how different the plots may be, all of his work has been funny. The creator has a knack for pulling you along on a story that may tug at your heartstrings but not without one-liners that liven things up for you. These stories all have comedic elements, though they are not straight-out “comedies”, like, say, Wedding Crashers or Superbad.
Daniel Richtman pointing out that the new Star Wars project will be a comedy suggests that the comedy will be the central element of the story. However, that would seem like an unexpected move for Star Wars and for the writers. Waititi’s co-writer, Krysty Wilson-Cairns, gained acclaim for her war drama 1917. Definitely not a comedy. She co-wrote the upcoming film Last Night In Soho with Edgar Wright, which is a horror-drama. Edgar Wright movies tend to be fairly funny, but they aren’t often movies you would just refer to as comedies. Even Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead have a lot more genre elements thrown in. You’re more likely to say Shaun of the Dead was a zombie movie and add in that it is also funny.
As for Taika Waititi’s work and the Star Wars universe, we’ve seen that he makes funny films that are more than just comedy. Thor: Ragnarok is hilarious, by the opinion of many. It’s funnier than a love of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a movie that we could probably say is a comedy, but that’s hardly the only thing you’d say about it, since it’s also an action-adventure fantasy story with characters from a comic book, which borrowed from Norse mythology. The story is just too many things to be called a “comedy” alone, and that seems true of any project coming from Star Wars as well.
Can we expect to laugh in Taika Waititi’s upcoming Star Wars project? Absolutely. It would be surprising and disappointing if we didn’t. Are we expecting that to be the main and identifiable genre of the movie? Not really. What is the Star Wars movie going to be about then? We can only hope Taika Waititi takes pity and tells us soon, but it’s likely he’s going to keep much of the plot under wraps until we see it in theaters.
