Disney Confirms New Star Wars Movie With Taika Waititi Directing

Taika Waititi is set to direct a new Star Wars movie, Disney has confirmed. The exciting news was announced on the official Star Wars website.

Oscar winner Waititi, who recently directed the season finale to franchise spin-off The Mandalorian, will also co-write the new instalment.

The 44-year-old, who is perhaps best known for his work on Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit, will work with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho) on the script. No release date has been set, however.

But if that wasn't exciting enough, there's more. Disney also confirmed that Leslye Headland (Russian Doll, Bachelorette) is working on another Star Wars television series for Disney+.

News of Waititi becoming the director of the new Star Wars flick comes a few months after it was announced that Game of Thrones writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had quit the project.

PA

Expressing their regret at no longer being able to bring the story forward, the pair released a joint statement.

It read: "We love Star Wars. When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.

"But there are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away."

If you fancy getting back up to speed with the saga, Disney has now added Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to Disney+ two months earlier than expected - just in time for May the Fourth.

As Polygon reported, the film didn't technically have a Disney+ release date until now; Disney had just said it wouldn't be released as easily as the rental version.

But now the streaming service has announced we can enjoy the final chapter of the latest Star Wars franchise two months earlier than we thought, with the complete Skywalker Saga available to watch all in one place.

Confirming the good news, Disney+ tweeted: The complete Skywalker Saga, all in one place. Start streaming all 9 films, including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker , on May the 4th, only on #DisneyPlus."

For those of you who don't know, The Rise of Skywalker follows Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron as they lead the Resistance's final stand against Kylo Ren and the First Order.

Topics: Interesting

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

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