First Look at Taika Waititi’s ‘Klara and the Sun,’ Which He Calls His “Most Dramatic Film”

Sony recently announced that Taika Waititi’s “Klara and the Sun” will be released on October 23, 2026. Some had predicted that ‘Klara’ would arrive in 2024, but that never materialized. The same whispers suggested a 2025 release — nope. Now, it looks like 2026 will be the year we get Waititi’s latest.

We now have our first look at Waititi’s Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation via Vanity Fair, which stars Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, and Natasha Lyonne. Ishiguro and Waititi don’t quite gel in my book. On paper, it’s one of the weirder director-author pairings in recent years. We’ll see how it turns out, especially since post-production took a long time to complete.

Dahvi Waller (“Mrs. America”) penned the original draft of ‘Klara,’ which follows an Artificial Friend who closely observes humans while waiting to be chosen. Waititi may have rewritten some, if not all, of the script.

Waititi tells VF that audiences will get to see a “different side” of him. “This one may even be my most dramatic film,” Waititi says. “At first, when I was writing, I was like, ‘Make this a Taika film and fill it with dumb fucking robot humor.’ And that didn’t really work when I was writing it. It took away from the book, and I’m like, ‘Why am I adapting this really amazing book and then trying to break away from it?’”

Will the film do the bare minimum and get the same rollout as Waititi’s last one — “Next Goal Wins”? It’s probably going to have a world premiere at TIFF and then flop upon release. This one has been delayed for far too long to suddenly turn out to be worth the wait.

Waititi has been on a bit of a cold streak. He struck out with “Thor: Love & Thunder” in 2022, and his last film, “Next Goal Wins,” which was also plagued by delays, was shot in 2019 and finally released in 2023 to very mixed reviews. His most recent outing, the Apple TV-produced “Time Bandits” reboot, was recently canceled after just one season.

Yet Waititi continues to pile up projects. He’s supposed to adapt “Barn 8” for the big screen. He may also still be making a “Star Wars” movie, not to mention a live-action remake of “Flash Gordon.” He has two additional projects — “The Incal” and “James” — for which we haven’t heard much of an update since their announcements.