Taika Waititi to return for Thor 4

Taika Waititi is reportedly returning to the director's chair to lead Thor 4.

According to editors at The Hollywood Reporter, the 43-year-old has been hired to write and direct the next movie in the Marvel franchise, two years after his critically-acclaimed directorial effort Thor: Ragnarok was released in 2017.

The plotline for the fourth movie is still in development, and it is unknown if it will take place directly after the events of this year's Avengers: Endgame, in which Chris Hemsworth's God of Thunder departs on a spaceship with Chris Pratt's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thor 4 does not yet have a release date, and it is expected that original stars Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins will not be returning, after their characters died in Avengers: Infinity War and Thor: Ragnarok, respectively.

However, Waititi signing on for the fourth instalment in the Marvel franchise possibly jeopardises his long-awaited Japanese manga Akira movie at Warner Bros.

That project was given a May 2021 release, and the New Zealand-born filmmaker was travelling around the world testing actors in a huge search for the stars of his movie.

Akira is now on hold indefinitely, as the two films' production dates almost overlap, according to reporters at Deadline.

Script development concerns on the Japanese manga adaptation originally delayed the filming start date, and while some of those issues have been resolved, the dates on Akira and Thor 4 were reportedly too close for comfort.

Waititi's next big-screen offering is Jojo Rabbit, which is set during World War II and follows an awkward young German boy whose only friend is his imaginary version of Adolf Hitler. The director also stars in the movie, alongside Scarlett Johansson, which is set to be released on 18 October in U.S. cinemas.