Now that Thor: Love and Thunder has hit theaters, many fans are looking forward to what Taika Waititi does next: Star Wars. The acclaimed director is excited but nervous to start this project so much so that asked Love and Thunder star Natalie Portman if she wants to be in his Star Wars movie, forgetting her huge role in the Star Wars prequels.
Taika Waititi forgot about the Star Wars prequels
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Taika Waititi revealed a funny conversation he had with Natalie Portman during the filming of Thor: Love and Thunder. According to Waititi, Portman asked him what he was doing next and the director jokingly asked if she wanted to be in his Star Wars movie. That’s when Portman told Waititi that she already appeared in Star Wars.
“Natalie said to me, what do you do next? And I said “I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing,” Waititi said. “Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?” She said, “I’ve been in Star Wars movies.” I forgot about those ones.”
Aside from asking her about Star Wars, Waititi was also asked about his experience working with Portman. His answers are mostly positive as he wanted to bring Jane Foster back after she was completely absent from Thor: Ragnarok, even giving her some of Marvel’s Mighty Thor comics for research.
“Basically I was like, a lot of fans miss Jane Foster, and people want to see her again. It just seemed like the perfect opportunity, because the character was so great in the Jason Aaron run of Thor,” explains Waititi. “Kevin [Feige] was already like, “I’d love to try and figure out a way to bring Mighty Thor into this film and bring Natalie back.” It didn’t take much convincing. She had never heard of that run of the comic, so I just dropped off some comics for her…. Anytime you ask, how did we cast so-and-so? We offered them millions of dollars and they said yes!”
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Waititi on Star Wars
While we now know Natalie Portman won’t be in Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie, there are still a lot of things we don’t know about his movie. To be fair, Waititi also doesn't know much about it.
He didn’t shy away from the fact that LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy can be overly hands-on with Star Wars projects. Waititi even claimed that he could be fired like Phil Lord and Chris Miller were on Solo.
“Might happen to me! And I think Taika [of] 10 years ago would be so panicked and nervous at the prospect of that. But if it’s not right, it’s not right,” states the director. “If it’s not ready, it’s not ready. [With] Star Wars, I don’t want to rush. It’s something I wouldn’t want to just leap into and not feel that it’s unique, it’s my film, and it makes sense. Because that would be a disaster. I’m writing at the moment. So I’m gonna do my best to come up with an idea that everyone loves.”
Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie will be coming out next year, though no release date has been revealed. Details on the film haven’t been revealed either, though we could expect some to come later in the year. In the meantime, Thor: Love and Thunder is now showing in theaters.
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