Taika Waititi’s Star Wars film is the latest to hit the buffers. At some point Lucasfilm is going to have to actually make a movie

Waititi joins a long list of movie-makers who were expected to bring a new direction to the franchise, before the studio appeared to get cold feet Movie-making these days is a very expensive endeavour. In 1977, George Lucas’s Star Wars cost $11m to make, which would be approximately $60m in today’s money, and has since amassed $775m at the global box office, including rereleases. Fast forward to 2026 and the most recent film in the long-running space saga, The Mandalorian and Grogu, cost a reported $165m and brought in $346m worldwide. If there was ever a Hollywood gold rush, the mines ran dry long ago.