Anticipation is sky-high for Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, which is due out November 3 and looks exceedingly fun. With his spotlight at an all-time high, he may soon sign on for another one of Hollywood’s most eagerly awaited projects: the live-action Akira movie.
Deadline, which broke the news, notes that Warner Bros. is “negotiating with” the director, who already has a post-Ragnarok film on his slate in the form of World War II dramedy Jojo Rabbit, which Waititi also wrote.
If the Akira deal goes through, Waititi would next turn his attentions to the live-action take on Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic manga and beloved 1988 animated film, which Deadline describes as taking place “in the rebuilt New Manhattan where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment.” Akira has been lurking in development hell since the early 2000s, with several different directors and stars coming and going over the years. Almost certainly, Waititi’s take would disregard any earlier casting decisions (sorry, Dane DeHaan); so far there’s no word if he’ll approach it as two films, as was once planned, or would cover the six-volume graphic novel series in a single movie.