Taika Waititi has addressed his comments about his new Star Wars movie not being about "Chewbacca's grandmother". The director is set to helm the next big-screen installment in the series, and has made it clear that he will be making something all new and not tied to the Skywalker Saga.
"Look, I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand," Waititi recently told Total Film. "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."
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Waititi expanded on his comments. "I saw on Twitter, someone's like: 'I'd actually really love to see a movie about Chewbacca's grandmother,'" he said. "And I was like, I shouldn't have said that because this is awesome! But I just feel like for me, I'm never gonna please the fans. You know, I don't want to mess with something that's so treasured."
The director continued: "Also, you feel like you've got to do a lot of research…and I don't have any time. [Laughs] I mean, there's thousands of books that have been written, these volumes of books about Star Wars with all those characters. I just don't have time to get through them. So I can't say like, you know, confidently, I'd be able to do something that's like very close to what everyone knows. I'm not promising that I'm not going to do anything like that. I'm just saying: It'd be easier for me to not do that. Would you like to see a Jar Jar Binks movie?"
Waititi added that he's still writing the movie and acknowledged that, considering there have been several high-profile Star Wars films seemingly abandoned, the same "might" happen to his movie – though he's not too concerned about the possibility, because "if it's not right, it's not right."
The director's Star Wars movie is expected in late 2023, but before that, Andor, The Mandalorian season 3, and Ahsoka will be landing on Disney Plus. You can get up to speed on the galaxy far, far away with our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
