Even after the Oscar for Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi is still creatively experimenting with the stars of Brawl

Taika Waititi has built a career on doing the unexpected, whether that means liking a Marvel blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok for a comedy or for winning an Oscar Yoyo Rabbitwhich won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2020 Oscars. Now he's entering a completely different arena Brawl Starswhere he wrote the animated launch trailer for the game's 101st troublemaker, Najia – a puzzle-obsessed character connected to Starr Park's mysterious Pyramid Quest attraction. It's a collaboration that might seem like a departure from his usual work, but in practice working with Brawl Stars he's actually on-brand with his tendency to explore new creative spaces rather than settling into the ones he already knows.

That curiosity was at the center of a recent conversation when GameRant spoke with Taika Waititi about his involvement in bringing Najia to life through an animated short. From writing a trailer to working in an established world Brawl StarsThe process offered him a different kind of creative challenge, one that relied less on traditional filmmaking and more on adapting to a medium he was largely unfamiliar with. However, for Waititi, working with Brawl Stars in the end, it was about finding out if the games industry was a space where his style would naturally fit – and as it turns out, he thinks so.

Taika Waititi's introduction to the games shows why Brawl Stars was a creative test

Part of what Waititi is involved with Brawl Stars so interestingly, by his own admission, he wasn't all that aware of what gaming had become over the past few decades prior to his collaboration with Supercell. He wasn't completely inexperienced with video games, but when he was introduced to the wider world of gaming through a family member, he found out that it was a much bigger giant than he first perceived. That's really what makes it easy to see why working on Ania's animated trailer Brawl Stars it wasn't just another project for him, but something closer to a creative experiment. As he explained:

“I was introduced to Brawl Stars through my brother-in-law and he's very passionate about gaming. He knows everything about games. It's crazy. But I've been amazed at how the games have evolved over the years, they've become deeper in terms of storytelling and more cinematic. And now you can find so many different games, from racing to super violent stuff to quiet games where something special happens, like you're sitting in the world and you have to climb a tree to push every piece of bark before you can enter another tree. It's just amazing that you can have so many things.”

It's truly refreshing to hear a respected filmmaker like Waititi learn how deep the gaming rabbit hole goes and come out the other side with an appreciation for it, if not for the simple fact that it opens up an even wider range of possibilities for the industry than those he's already exploring. But being the storyteller that he is, his appreciation wasn't just for the way the games play, but the stories they tell and the lore embedded deep within their carefully crafted universes. And approaching it from the outside, he saw his work on Naja's animated short as a chance to engage with this form of storytelling that works very differently from film.

But this ignorance almost worked to his advantage. Waititi was able to look at it without being locked into the expectations of how games should present their stories Brawl Stars more holistically, recognizing how its story goes beyond the game itself. This realization became one of the most surprising aspects of the process for him, especially as he began to understand how players build relationships with characters and lore beyond just the game. When asked what excites him most about storytelling in games today, he candidly replied:

“Well, what's so interesting about it Brawl Stars that it's not necessarily in the game. All the lore takes place outside of the game, which is a different world in itself. It's just something I never got. I never understood in the past that there was a world where people learned about something's characters and their connections outside of playing the game, which fascinated me. It's just a completely different approach to storytelling. It's like watching a movie, but you don't know everything until after you watch the movie, when you go to explore it. And I don't know what that looks like in terms of actual storytelling around movies or series or anything like that, but it's just an interesting thing to think about that you can have these things that exist side by side, and it's no longer just about this one way of presenting a story. But yeah, I think adapting games is getting pretty exciting.”

Taika Waititi may still be open to future acting projects

It's easy to see why someone like Waititi is so excited about the nature of games these days, as most of them are no longer just about completing simple objectives or moving from one platform to another without dying, but about traversing thought-provoking stories and vast worlds that are just as deep (if not more) than the ones that take place on the silver screen. But because games approach storytelling in such a different, perhaps more layered way than movies usually do, Waititi saw it as a challenge he wanted to pursue, to the point where he's willing to explore the idea of working more with gaming in the future:

“Yeah, sure. I think one of the reasons I got into it with Supercell is because I wanted to explore the idea of it becoming a bigger thing, or other characters, just to see how far I could go with it. In some ways, I feel like it was kind of like testing the waters and seeing if it was a space I could exist in. And yes, I think it is.”

Waititi seemed familiar enough to at least be willing to work with him Brawl Stars again in the future, but it seems likely that he views his work with the mobile game as testing the waters for gaming in general. Given his apparent, albeit newfound, fascination with the gaming world combined with his love of great storytelling and his openness to exploring new creative spaces, Waititi probably hasn't closed the door on future projects that potentially go beyond a single animated short.

For someone who has already achieved recognition at the highest level of filmmaking, this willingness to constantly test himself stands out. Instead of relying on what has worked in the past, Waititi continues to find new ways to challenge his creativity, even if it means entering uncharted territory like video games. And if Brawl Stars There are indications that this approach may take him to places that feel as natural to him as the films that made his name. Perhaps the industry shouldn't be surprised if Taika Waititi's name ends up in the credits of one of its biggest titles, but ultimately time and the director's willingness to keep exploring this space will decide.