Taika Waititi’s long-discussed Star Wars feature has been put on hold. The filmmaker has said the project is “on ice,” and that he and writer Tony McNamara have shifted their attention to a different collaboration instead.

The update is the clearest statement yet on a movie that spent years in the curious middle ground between an announced attachment and a finished production: talked about often enough to sustain interest, but never attached to a locked release plan, cast, or production start. Waititi made plain that this is not simply a matter of carefully wording an ongoing development update. “It’s very iced,” he said, adding that he has roughly four other films he is trying to make.

What “on ice” means here

In film development, “on ice” generally means a project is being set aside without a declared cancellation. That distinction matters. A movie can remain associated with a studio or creators on paper while active writing, scheduling, budgeting, casting, and pre-production work stop or receive no immediate priority.

That is the most accurate way to read the status of Waititi’s Star Wars movie. It is not presented as a confirmed dead end, but neither is there a timetable for its return. Waititi left the possibility open with a lighthearted acknowledgment that ice ages eventually end, while making no promise that this particular project will be thawed out.

For audiences, the practical implication is straightforward: it should not be treated as an upcoming film until there is a new, concrete development. A project can be creatively alive in a broad sense and still be far from a production that is moving toward theaters. The absence of a production date is especially important after several years of intermittent status reports.

A project with a long, uneven development trail

Interest in Waititi directing a film set in the galaxy far, far away dates back to early 2020. His official connection to a Star Wars movie was confirmed months later, following the attention he had earned as the director of Thor: Ragnarok. His wider filmography also includes Jojo Rabbit and What We Do in the Shadows, work that helped make the prospect of his take on the franchise a distinctive one.

Early signs sounded more encouraging. In 2021, Waititi said he had completed the story for the film. The following year, Lucasfilm’s then-president Kathleen Kennedy said the aim was to have it in theaters in late 2023, though she also stressed that nothing had been firmly locked in. That caveat became more significant as the target date came and went without the film entering a publicly defined production phase.

By April 2023, Waititi was still described as working on the project. Later that year, however, he indicated that other work would take priority. Updates then grew sparse. Earlier in 2026, he suggested that the movie would draw on more of the original trilogy’s sense of fun, an appealing creative clue but not an indication that cameras were about to roll.

The latest statement changes the tone from “still being worked on” to an explicit pause. It also identifies a creative redirection: Waititi and McNamara are working together on something else. McNamara’s continued involvement had been one of the recurring pieces of information around the film, but their partnership now appears to be focused outside Star Wars.

Why the lack of specifics is notable

There is still very little public detail about what Waititi’s proposed Star Wars story would have been. No title, release date, cast, setting, or plot has been established here. That is not a minor omission; those are the milestones that turn an idea into a film audiences can realistically expect to see.

The only broad creative direction Waititi has offered recently was a desire to capture more of the original trilogy’s fun. That can suggest a lighter, more playful adventure, but it should not be inflated into a synopsis. “Fun” is a tonal aspiration, not confirmation of characters, period, conflict, or continuity connections.

It is also worth separating development from pre-production. Development can include story work and discussions among a filmmaker, writer, and studio. Pre-production is the more concrete stage where a production prepares to shoot through tasks such as hiring key crew, finalizing schedules, building sets, and arranging logistics. The information available about Waititi’s film does not establish that it reached the latter stage.

That gap explains why a years-long public association with a major franchise can still end in a pause without a trailer, cast announcement, or release calendar slot. A filmmaker can have a story in place, a collaborator attached, and a genuine interest in making the movie, yet a project may remain in development while priorities change.

Waititi’s busy slate adds context, not certainty

Waititi has not been inactive during the period in which the Star Wars movie remained unresolved. He released Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022, followed by Next Goal Wins in 2023. His film Klara and the Sun, starring Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, and Steve Buscemi, is set for theatrical release on October 23, 2026.

Those projects help explain why Waititi frames the pause in terms of competing work. They do not, by themselves, explain every decision behind the stalled Star Wars film, and no specific reason for the pause has been confirmed beyond the creators moving onto another project and Waititi pursuing several other movies.

That restraint is important in a franchise landscape where rumors can quickly become assumed facts. There is no basis here to say the film was rejected, canceled, replaced, or that any particular creative disagreement ended it. There is also no confirmed indication that another director or writer will take over this exact concept.

What fans should and should not take from the update

  • Confirmed: Waititi says the film is on ice, and he and McNamara are working on something different together.
  • Confirmed: The project had been in discussion or development for years, with its story said to be completed in 2021.
  • Not confirmed: A cancellation, revival date, replacement creative team, cast, title, plot, or production schedule.
  • Reasonable expectation: There is no evidence that audiences should expect this film in the near term.

For now, the story is less about a newly announced Star Wars direction than a candid recognition of development reality. Waititi’s film occupies a familiar category of high-profile franchise projects: creatively intriguing, once clearly intended to move forward, and now parked without a firm answer about whether it will return.

That uncertainty does not erase the appeal of what Waititi and McNamara might have made. It does mean the project belongs in the “wait and see” file rather than the release-calendar conversation. Fans looking for a different kind of franchise origin story can meanwhile see how another major property is being approached in this look at the choices behind a young Bond origin.

Waititi’s wording leaves a narrow door open. But until that door opens with something more substantial than a possibility, his Star Wars film remains exactly what he called it: very iced.