Although he’s filled out his upcoming slate with the Michael Fassbender-headlined Next Goal Wins and Marvel sequel Thor: Love and Thunder, director Taika Waititi has confirmed that he remains committed to the long-gestating live-action Akira movie, although scheduling issues mean that fans of the classic anime still face a lengthy wait before it comes to fruition.
“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,” Waititi told IGN during a promotional interview for his new film Jojo Rabbit. “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.”
Warner Bros. first acquired the rights to Akira back in 2002, but its plans for a live-action adaptation have been stuck in development hell, with numerous failed attempts to get it moving over the years. The Thor: Ragnarok helmer boarded the project in 2017, with the studio then setting a release date of May 21st 2021, before Waititi decided to reteam with Marvel on Love and Thunder. It’s currently on an indefinite hiatus, and judging by Waititi’s comments, it could well be 2023 before we see the movie – assuming nothing else goes wrong, that is…
