Star Wars: Taika Waititi to direct and co-write new film with 1917 screenwriter

Filmmaker is familar with franchise after working on ‘The Mandalorian’

Taika Waititi will direct and co-write a new Star Wars film for theatrical release.

The filmmaker behind Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit will write the script with 1917’s Krysty Wilson-Cairnstaika.

No release date has been set for the movie, suggesting it is a different project to the already scheduled Star Wars film set to come out in 2022.

This will not be Waititi's first time working on a project set within the Star Wars universe: he directed the first season finale of The Mandalorian, and voiced the character of IG-11 in the show.

In January, rumours broke that Waititi was being eyed for a Star Wars movie.

Many fans will be hoping the new Star Wars film is better than Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. Anthony Daniels, the actor who played the fussy android C-3PO in the movie, recently revealed he fell asleep while watching it for the first time.

Waititi’s current directing project is Next Goal Wins, a film about the underdog American Samoa soccer team. He also has Thor: Love and Thunder, a movie he wrote and is set to direct, coming out in 2021.