What impact will Taika Waititi's newly-announced Star Wars film have on Thor: Love & Thunder and Akira? When movie fans refer to the figurative cinematic purgatory known as Development Hell, Akira is one of the first examples they might give as a film that looks destined to forever go unmade. Based on the iconic manga series and anime film of the same name, a live-action Hollywood Akira movie has been in development since the 1990s, but only became a serious consideration when Warner Bros. purchased the rights in 2002. A revolving door of writers and directors have been attached to the project ever since, from Gary Whitta to George Miller, but at no point did any measurable progress appear to be made.
Amid reports that Akira was proving near-impossible to translate from Japanese anime to live-action western blockbuster, the list of attached names kept growing until, finally, Thor: Ragnarok's Taika Waititi was officially announced as directing Akira and, miraculously, a release date was set for May 2021. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the hellish flames began licking at Akira's boots once again. Marvel Studios announced Thor: Love & Thunder would be a 2021 addition to Phase 4 of the MCU, and Akira was promptly delayed. In late 2019, Waititi claimed he was still committed to Akira after his work on the fourth Thor adventure was complete, but as of February 2020, the director was less certain about his involvement in the anime adaptation. The situation recently took a further twist when it was revealed on Star Wars Day 2020 that Waititi was to helm a new movie in the galaxy far, far away.
It's highly unlikely that Waititi's involvement in Star Wars will have any impact on Thor: Love & Thunder. Both franchises fall under the Disney umbrella and the director's MCU commitments would've been taken into account from the start. Furthermore, Star Wars is currently set to make a big screen return at the end of 2022. Even with the recent coronavirus delays, Thor: Love & Thunder is still expected to arrive in early 2022, meaning Waititi could easily move from the MCU to Star Wars, especially if Waititi's planned film wasn't the initial 2022 project. Waititi joining the Star Wars world could, however, put dampeners on a potential fifth Thor movie. A Love & Thunder follow-up was always unlikely given how the original Avengers are being gradually phased out, and the director's new gig supports that theory.
While Disney can look after their own projects, the future is looking notably bleaker for Akira. Not only are Thor and Star Wars likely to fill Waititi's schedule for the foreseeable future, but the latter has the potential to extend beyond a single movie, especially if the director manages to deliver a film that doesn't rile up half of the Star Wars fandom. Akira might've been able to wait for Thor: Love & Thunder to wrap up, but the possibility of multiple Star Wars movies surely means Waititi's involvement in Akira must come to an end. The anime adaptation is tricky, detailed and ambitious, and isn't something that could easily slot between big budget Disney productions. In a Variety interview, Waititi estimated Thor: Love & Thunder had set back Akira by 2 years; the addition of Star Wars to his schedule could take the property far beyond its planned 2021 release.
Assuming Warner Bros. aren't willing to wait indefinitely until a slot opens up on Waititi's calendar, there are two paths forward for Akira. Firstly, it's possible that the latest setback will prove to be the final nail in the coffin for the long-suffering anime adaptation. The announcement of Taika Waititi as director and a prospective release date was the biggest step forward the live-action Akira movie had ever made, and already those plans look to have gone awry. Having said that, Akira has endured so much upheaval but always remained perennially "in-development" to some extent. It would be unwise to count the iconic Japanese story out completely after this latest blow, and although there remains no official word on Akira's future from Warner Bros. or Waititi himself, it looks like the project is back to square one.
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