5 May 2020

Taika Waititi to make new Star Wars film

6:36 am on 5 May 2020

Oscar-winning film-maker Taika Waititi will direct and co-write a new Star Wars film to be released in cinemas.

New Zealand director/actor Taika Waititi (R) waits as his award for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Jojo Rabbit" is engraved as he attends the 92nd Oscars Governors Ball at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California on February 9, 2020. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)

Taika Waititi. Photo: AFP

Waititi won an Academy Award earlier this year for World War Two film Jojo Rabbit, and is also known for making Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok.

He will write the unnamed film with Scotland's Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who was nominated for an Oscar for 1917.

Meanwhile, US writer Leslye Headland is creating a new series for Disney+, the service's fourth small-screen spin-off.

The Mandalorian is already streaming, and gave Waititi his introduction to the Star Wars universe when he directed the series one finale and voiced the droid IG-11.

New series are also being made for Disney+ about Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cassian Andor.

On the big screen, other Star Wars movies currently planned include a trilogy masterminded by The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson; and another spin-off created by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige.

The news was released on "Star Wars Day" - May the fourth.

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