Taika Waititi’s Next Great Movie Might Be “Next Goal Wins”

Understandably, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with making something as daring and imaginative as JoJo Rabbit and pulling off an original, critically acclaimed box office hit like Thor: Ragnarok. Everyone in Hollywood/the world wants the Waititi touch as a director, writer, and actor. According to IMDB, Taika is in production on the long awaited Akira adaptation and a TV series Interior Chinatown. That’s in addition to being in pre-production on Tower of Terror, The Incal, Time Bandits, and developing a TBD Star Wars flick to boot.

That said, what we’re looking forward to isn’t his next tentpole, big franchise movie (cough cough Thor: Love and Thunder left so very much to be desired), but something more along the lines of what put Taika on the map in the first place (i.e. comedies close to home, both in heart and in physical location). Hunt for the Wilderpeople and the original What We Do In The Shadows movie.

Lucky for us all, that’s exactly what’s queued up next with Next Goal Wins. Taika follows the real life story of what has been heralded as one of the worst losing streaks of all time by the American Samoa soccer/football team. Michael Fassbender plays a coach who gets relegated from coaching for the U.S. to the lowly ranks of coaching for an American territory that hasn’t even scored a goal an international match, much less won. It has all the makings of signature charming, underdog, heartwarming, yet sassy comedy that Waititi is known for.

See for yourself in this first trailer for Next Goal Wins here, then look for it in theaters near you beginning Nov. 17th.