Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi describes his upcoming film Next Goal Wins as an antidote to making Thor films. The New Zealand filmmaker boasts many talents, serving as a writer, director, and actor on several acclaimed projects including What We Do In The Shadows and Our Flag Means Death. Waititi is known for his irreverent and quirky style as a director and is credited for breathing new life into the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor franchise with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. Though Waititi got his start with more regional projects such as Eagle vs. Shark, Boy, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, he has since created several films and television series with an international reach with his involvement in the MCU as well as Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
The director’s next release, Next Goal Wins, will see him return to his New Zealand roots with a sports film based on the 2014 documentary of the same name, centered on the American Samoa national football team. During a sit-down with Empire for the Indiana Jones 5 issue, Waititi explained the personal significance of Next Goal Wins for him, describing the movie as “a great antidote” to his more international works due to its Polynesian setting. The director described seeing the documentary as “seeing myself up there, seeing my family up there,” which led to his interest in bringing the story and representation it afforded his people to a wider audience. See what Waititi had to say below:
“It was a great antidote to doing Thor and Jojo Rabbit. Not that there’s anything negative about doing those other films, but I just missed home so much.”
Everything We Know About Next Goal Wins
Despite the heart present in Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit and the success and acclaim garnered by both projects, Waititi’s comments show that Next Goal Wins is much closer to his heart since he will be able to spotlight his home in a meaningful way. Waititi, who has championed indigenous representation on-screen in several projects including Reservation Dogs and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, clearly looks forward to furthering that mission with Next Goal Wins while also being able to bring a piece of his people’s recent history to a larger audience. The film will be created for 20th Century Fox’s Searchlight Pictures under The Walt Disney Company, offering more resources and an international reach to the regional story.
The Next Goal Wins movie will star Alien: Covenant‘s Michael Fassbender as Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen, the coach tasked with trying to lead the American Samoa national football team, which was considered the weakest in the world at the time, to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Next Goal Wins documentary, which was created by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison in 2014, followed the same story that the film will tackle and earned overwhelmingly favorable reviews from critics and audiences due to its moving depiction of the underdog story. Waititi has described his feature film version of the documentary as having a dramatized and more fictional twist in order to delve deeper into the characters.
In addition to Fassbender, Next Goal Wins will star Oscar Kightley, David Fane, Will Arnett, Elisabeth Moss, Rhys Darby, and many others, with Andy Serkis serving as one of the film’s executive producers. Michael Giacchino, who has worked on Marvel and Star Wars projects like Waititi and Serkis, composed the comedy-drama film’s score. Next Goal Wins is set to debut April 21, 2023, giving those intrigued by the premise plenty of time to view the documentary beforehand.
