Taika Waititi says that he still plans on directing Akira

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira has been languishing in development hell for decades, but it seemed as though the project was actually about to move forward under the direction of Taika Waititi (JOJO RABBIT) and Warner Bros. even slated the film for a May 21, 2021 release. However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe came calling with THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER and AKIRA was put on on hold.

While speaking with IGN, Taika Waititi explained why AKIRA was pushed back and added that he's still planning on tackling the project once he finishes up with THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER.

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.

Hollywood doesn't exactly have a great track record when it comes to adapting anime properties, and although I wasn't overly optimistic about the AKIRA project, I'm willing to give Taika Waititi the benefit of the doubt. In addition to directing, Taika Waititi will also co-write the script with Michael Golamco, and the official logline seems to be sticking pretty close to the original story: "A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop."

Waititi has previously said that AKIRA will be going straight to the original manga source rather than simply remaking the anime. "I actually love the books," Waititi said. "Love the movie, but I would not do a remake of the movie. I would do an adaptation of the books." Waititi also added that he wouldn't whitewash the film, preferring instead to discover unknown Asian actors. "Yeah. actually Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent," Waititi said. "Yeah, I'd probably want to take it a bit back more towards the books."