The screenwriter and director of Thor: Ragnarök and Jojo rabbit, Taika Waititi, recently confirmed that he still aspires to be able to direct a live-action adaptation from Akira, the iconic 1988 animated film. Originally based on the manga of the same name by Katsuhiro Otomo of 1982, the story takes place in a dystopian version of our world during the year 2019 and focuses on Shōtarō Kaneda, the leader of a motorcycle gang whose childhood friend acquires dangerous telekinetic abilities after a motorcycle accident. The city of Neo-Tokyo where the story is located then plunges into chaos.
The film, produced for $ 5.5 million (700 million yus) received unanimously positive reviews and has often been considered one of the greatest sci-fi anime ever made and a major cyberpunk work. In 2002, Warner bros took over Akira’s rights and tried to get someone started on the project. Stephen Norrington (Blade) and Jaume Collet-Serra (Jungle Cruise) have followed one another without succeeding in getting the project off the ground. In 2017, it is Taika Waititi who signed to take over the film in hand, but he too faces serious problems.
Lately appeared in the Free Guy of Shawn levy where it is clearly unbearable, Waititi discussed the project with Wired. Although he did not give details of the reasons blocking the project Akira, the New Zealand filmmaker assured that he did not want to abandon the film. Yet given the recent success of Thor: Ragnarök, Waititi seems largely concerned with the realization of future projects related to the MCU, whose Thor: Love and Thunder which will take him a lot of time in the months to come. Add to that the fact that the director will take charge of a film Star wars and we come to the following conclusion: the film Akira may never happen.
While waiting for the filmmaker’s future projects, Thor: Love and Thunder, considered by Waititi as his most “filmcrazy“, Will arrive in theaters for the May 4, 2022.