Earlier this year, it was announced that Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Taika Waititi will be directing a new Star Wars movie from a script he’ll co-write with 1917’s Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Nothing is known about the plot so far, but Waititi’s first blockbuster, the MCU’s Thor: Ragnarok, proved that his filmmaking style could be just what big-budget moviemaking needs right now.
The Disney era of Star Wars has mostly let down fans, thanks to studio-mandated reshoots and the questionable decision-making of Lucasfilm, but by bringing what he brought to Ragnarok to a galaxy far, far away, Waititi could save the saga.
Humor
First and foremost, what Taika Waititi brought to Thor: Ragnarok that made it one of the MCU’s best entries and a blockbuster like no other was a comic sensibility that is entirely his own.
Humor has been one of the strongest elements in all of Waititi’s movies, and there’s a great legacy of humor in the Star Wars saga (although the original trilogy’s jokes land a lot more than those of the prequel and sequel trilogies) that Waititi can contribute to.
Memorable Villains
While the MCU is often accused of having a “villain problem,” Taika Waititi averted it by giving Thor: Ragnarok not one, not two, but three unforgettable antagonists. Cate Blanchett played Hela as a mustache-twirling Disney villain, Surtur was everything comic book fans had hoped for, and the Grandmaster was quintessentially Jeff Goldblum.
There are plenty of great villains in Star Wars, from Boba Fett to Jabba the Hutt to Darths Vader, Maul, and Sidious. There are also plenty of forgettable ones, like Snoke and Dryden Vos. Waititi has proved he can deliver a handful of entries in the former category.
Colorful Visuals
The films of the Star Wars saga are usually bright and colorful, but the Disney era hasn’t always honored this. The visual palette in Solo: A Star Wars Story was needlessly gloomy. It was hard to tell what was going on in a lot of scenes because they were lit so dimly.
Waititi’s visual style is delightfully colorful – seen in Thor: Ragnarok, but also seen in Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the Wilderpeople – so he can bring vibrant splashes of color back to the Star Wars universe.
Letting His Actors Have Fun
Chris Hemsworth looked like he was having more fun than he’d ever had playing Thor in Ragnarok. Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, and Tessa Thompson similarly seemed to have had a whale of a time making the movie.
Taika Waititi lets his actors have fun with their roles and the scenes they’re in, and that sense of fun definitely comes through in the finished product.
Character Dynamics
Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston always shared fantastic chemistry in the Thor series, but they didn’t really feel like brothers until Taika Waititi developed their dynamic with heart and humor in Ragnarok.
The director can bring this kind of tangible character dynamic to the cast of his Star Wars movie, whoever it ends up being about, after the sequel trilogy failed Luke, Leia, and Han.
Beautifully Realized Worlds
What really disappointed George Lucas about The Force Awakens, among other things, is that he went out of his way to create brand-new worlds for each of his Star Wars movies, but J.J. Abrams just came up with another desert planet and another snow planet and another jungle planet.
In Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi beautifully realized worlds like Sakaar and Muspelheim and even introduced fans to unseen sides of Asgard. There’s no doubt he’ll create some awesome new planets in the Star Wars universe.
Campy Tone
In stark contrast with darkly themed comic book movies like The Dark Knight and, to a much lesser effect, Fant4stic, Taika Waititi leaned into the zany tone of his source material and gave Thor: Ragnarok a delightfully light, breezy, campy tone.
This was heavily influenced by Flash Gordon, which was also one of the strongest influences on George Lucas’ creation of Star Wars in the first place.
Inventive Set Pieces
There’s nothing worse than a blockbuster that simply ticks off a checklist of all the same mundane set pieces audiences have consumed in a thousand previous blockbusters just like it, blindly following the formula for success.
From Thor’s gladiatorial match with the Hulk to the triumphant escape from Sakaar, the set pieces in Thor: Ragnarok were inventive and fresh.
Underlying Social Commentary
While the social commentary is more prevalent in rival sci-fi franchise Star Trek than Star Wars, the latter has always included an incisive critique of real-world issues. For example, the politics of the original trilogy were influenced by the Vietnam War.
Taika Waititi can bring an undertone of social commentary to his own Star Wars movie, as he did with Thor: Ragnarok, which has been read as a comment on the history of colonialism and the treatment of indigenous people.
Developing Characters Through Action
Whether they feature superheroes or Jedi Knights, big tentpole blockbusters are essentially action movies, and the cornerstone of any great action movie is using action to drive the plot and the characters. The action shouldn’t be a distraction from the plot and the plot shouldn’t have to stop the action dead.
In Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi did a great job of developing his characters through their actions – particularly Thor’s revelation during the final battle – and he can bring that to Star Wars.