Taika Waititi Is Finishing 'Jojo Rabbit' Reshoots, Movie Will Be Released This Fall [TCA 2019]

After the Television Critics Association panel for What We Do In The Shadows, filmmaker Taika Waititi talked about his future with Marvel and the Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian. But currently, Waititi is making the film Jojo Rabbit, in which Waititi himself stars as an imaginary Adolf Hitler. The director indicated he'd gone back to film some Jojo Rabbit reshoots but expects to be finished in the spring, in time for a fall release to coincide with awards season.

"I'm doing some additional photography on that right now," Waititi said. "I'll probably finish it in about April. I think it'll be around the end of the year, that time of the year for sure."

If fans only know Waititi from his Marvel Studios hit Thor: Ragnarok or the vampire comedy mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows, first of all, go watch more Taika Waititi movies. They're great. And by watching movies like The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, you'll get a better sense of the tone Waititi is going for in Jojo Rabbit.

"It was very similar to the tone of my other films – not including Shadows and Ragnarok – like Wilderpeople, Boy and my earlier films. A fun balance of tone of comedy and drama."

Here's the movie's official synopsis, which was announced last March: 

JOJO RABBIT, by Taika Waititi (THOR, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE), blends his signature humor, pathos, and deeply compelling characters in a World War II satire about a ten-year-old boy who, ridiculed by his peers and misunderstood by his mother, can't quite figure out how to fit in. As the naïve young German struggles to understand his place in an increasingly Fascist regime, he resorts to an imaginary friend who can offer advice and help him cope.

Movies about imaginary friends run the gamut from the raucous comedy Drop Dead Fred to the Jimmy Stewart classic Harvey. Waititi revealed a first look photo of Hitler at the dinner table with a boy and his mother. It certainly looks whimsical with Hitler giving the mother side eye. Like Wilderpeople, it suggests the kind of extreme fantasy a child can develop. Other than the imaginary Hitler, however, Waititi says Jojo Rabbit is "pretty real world."Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, Rebel Wilson, Thomasin McKenzie, and newcomer Roman Griffin co-star, and the movie will be distributed by Fox Searchlight.