Studios have been attempting to adapt the seminal manga/anime ‘Akira’ into live-action for decades, and it looked as though Warner Brothers was actually going to make it happen, with superstar director Taika Waititi. But in July, it was announced that ‘Akira’ had been put on indefinite hold. At SDCC, it was announced that Waititi was returning to Marvel Studios to write and helm ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. But hope is not lost, as Waititi still plans to direct ‘Akira’ once he is finished with the fourth ‘Thor’.
RELATED: Taika Waititi Signs On To Write And Direct ‘Thor 4’ As Warner Bros. Delays ‘Akira’
While promoting his latest film, ‘Jojo Rabbit’, Waititi said:
“Unfortunately, the timing with Akira, because we’ve been working really hard on the script, we had to keep pushing the start date for the shoot. We ended up having to push it a couple weeks too far, which actually ate into the Thor schedule, because they were very close together. And that got pushed again and again, and it just got too far into the Thor schedule to be able to make it work. And my first commitment was to Marvel to make that film, so now I’ve kind of had to take Akira and sort of shift it around to the tail-end of Thor and move it down a couple of years.”
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ has a release date of November 5, 2021. Filming should take place next year and there will be several months of post-production. Waititi will also be needed to promote the finished product.
‘Akira’ had been scheduled for release on May 21, 2021. At this point, a 2022 date could still work, if Waititi begins working on it prior to the release of ‘Love and Thunder’.
Waititi plans to cast ‘Akira’ with unknown young Asian or Asian American actors in order to keep it faithful to the source material and avoid accusations of whitewashing.
Are you glad that Waititi still plans to make ‘Akira’?
Source: IGN
