Taiki Waititi Returns to Helm ‘Thor 4’, ‘Akira’ Live-Action Put On Hold

With Iron Man and Captain America gone, only Thor is left to continue his solo journey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi will return to helm the fourth Thor movie, which is currently among the planned films for the MCU’s Phase 4. But with this good news comes an unfortunate fate for one much-awaited project under Waititi’s belt—the Akira live-action film has now been put on hold indefinitely at Warner Bros. to give way to Waititi’s production schedule for Thor 4.

Thor: Ragnarok was Waititi’s first foray into the MCU, which proved to be a successful one. It went on to gross $854 million in 2017, against a budget of just $180 million. Of course, Chris Hemsworth will return as the God of Thunder, but Waititi’s return to the role of Korg is unknown. The director played the character in Ragnarok as one of Thor’s buddies and was last seen in Avengers: Endgame. Aside from directing the fourth Thor entry, Waititi will also write the screenplay. Thor 4 has no scheduled release date yet, but it’s surely a part of the next batch of films under Marvel Studios that will pick up the events of Endgame, most especially Iron Man and Captain America’s absence.

Meanwhile, things at Warner Bros. are looking a bit glum. Akira has been in development for quite some time now, with Waititi still attached to helm the live-action remake of the cult ’80s animated film. But with his return to the MCU, the project has been put on hold, likely taken off of WB’s scheduled for May 21, 2021. Akira follows the story of two teenage bikers, Tetsuo and Kaneda, who live in a dystopian neo-future Tokyo following a psychic attack. When Tetsuo begins developing psychic powers while working for the government, the pair goes on a run. But they’re not just running from the government this time; the powerful psychic Akira is also after them.

Waititi’s next film project is under Fox Searchlight, titled Jojo Rabbit. It’s a Nazi-era satire about a young boy with an imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (played by Waititi). The film bows on October 18th and also stars Scarlett Johansson.