Inside Taika Waititi's humiliating downfall as director's career is 'tarnished' with box office bombs and shelved projects after divorcing wife and marrying Rita Ora

Taika Waititi has suffered a humiliating blow to his career in recent weeks after his Star Wars movie was shelved and Klara And The Sun bombed at the box office.The Hollywood star, who is married to singer-songwriter Rita Ora, is famed for directing What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Oscar-winning movie Jojo Rabbit.Despite gaining a reputation with his long list of Hollywood credits under his belt, Taika appears to be facing a creative setback.His most recent project Klara And The Sun holds an embarrassing 26 per cent 'rotten' rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, while his 2023 film Next Goal Wins is also 'rotten' with 46 per cent. Taika's 2022 film Thor: Love and Thunder has a 'fresh' 46 per cent, but is still one of the lowest ranked Marvel movies of all time. Critics are now blaming his downfall on the collapse of his marriage to film producer ex-wife Chelsea Winstanley. Inside Taika Waititi's humiliating downfall as director's career is 'tarnished' with box office bombs and shelved projects after divorcing producer Chelsea Winstanley (pictured in 2018) Nowadays, Taika is mostly seen alongside his wife Rita Ora at glamorous red carpet events as well as collaborating on her music videos but his directing career has flopped Chelsea served as producer on Taika's films What We Do in the Shadows, which has a 96 per cent 'fresh' rating, and Jojo Rabbit, also 'fresh' with a critic approval rating of 81 per cent. Taika and Chelsea - who share two children - quietly split in 2018 and publicly confirmed their separation two years later, soon before his relationship with Rita was revealed.Now Taika has been brutally savaged by fans who claimed Chelsea was the 'secret element to his best work' amid his rough movie streak.Critics discussed on Reddit: 'Seriously, take a look at the date of his separation and how much he's fallen off since. The last film of his that she worked on was JoJo Rabbit.''His first wife was actually the secret element to his best work. Once he started working with her - the period from BOY to JOJO RABBIT - she as a producer and partner clearly pulled him away from his many worst impulses and gave his work the edge/heart that made people connect with it.' 'It's always interesting when you have a creative partnership, and you pull one thread out of it and you can see it unravel completely. I wonder if Waitti has a goofy creative vibe but needs someone to reign him in and say no.''He seems to have entered the 'good male director leaves his editor wife and suddenly his movies are s***'.Nowadays, Taika is mostly seen alongside his wife Rita at glamorous red carpet events as well as collaborating on her music videos.The couple wed in a secret ceremony in August 2022, after Rita bucked tradition and popped the question. Taika has been brutally savaged by fans who claimed Chelsea was the 'secret element to his best work' amid his rough movie streak The Hollywood star is famed for directing Oscar-winning movie Jojo Rabbit (pictured with his Oscar in 2020)Taika's latest movie Klara And The Sun which stars Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams has failed to shine at the box office.The movie premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and has racked up a stream of lacklustre reviews in the days since.The Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian have all given the film one star reviews.Yet Taika dismissed critics of Klara And The Sun as 'irrelevant' and 'out of touch'. Sharing a poster featuring the audience response, he wrote on Instagram: 'I haven't read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people.'So this Halloween, let's spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn't achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit. [Cry-laughing and shrugging emojis]'Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.(sic)'Taika recently described Klara and the Sun as the 'most dramatic' project he has ever worked on.Speaking to SFX magazine, Taika said: 'It's very different to my other stuff.'It's the most dramatic thing I've done. I think with most of my films the hard part is how to market them. People are gonna look at the trailer and go, 'It's a fun romp with robots', and it's not, you know?'It's a deep meditation on the human condition. I like changing it up. I'm enjoying this little foray into the dramatic side of myself.'His latest movie Klara And The Sun which stars Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams has failed to shine in the box office (pictured last month)The director admitted he felt out of his depth working with Jenna and was pleased that the Wednesday star frequently challenged his approach to the film.He said: 'All the actors I've cast in this, but Jenna especially because she carried everything, really saved my a*** in a lot of ways.'You always want that, because I'm always worried with someone who just goes along with whatever I say.'Klara And The Sun is adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro's novel of the same name and Taika was pleased to get a 'supportive nod' from the Japanese-British writer.He said: 'He was very open about saying, 'I've done my bit. Now I'm handing it over to you to do what you want with it, as long as you don't screw it up and stay somewhat faithful to it, then it's yours.''So that was really cool just to be given that supportive nod.'Taika shot the film in his native New Zealand and says that the country's landscape added to the story.The director said: 'I wanted to stay true to the book with everything, but I wanted to spend a little bit more time when she's out in the fields.'I'm not gonna say, 'Make the wheat fields a character', but... they're there all the time, and the landscape is so prominent, both in New Zealand but also in the book.'Ra Vincent, who's done most of my films' production design, made some pretty bold choices with that house as well. We were looking at, 'What could it possibly look like, slightly in the future? What are the trends?'' It comes after Taika revealed earlier this year that his long-awaited Star Wars movie has been 'put on ice' (pictured in 2017 on set of Thor)Taika also revealed this year that his long-awaited Star Wars movie has been 'put on ice'.'I hate to break this to you, but we're going to actually put it on ice and we're working on a different thing together', Taika told Inverse. 'It's very iced. I've got about four other movies I'm trying to do'.Taika is voicing Willy Wonka in upcoming Netflix sequel Charlie v The Chocolate Factory, plus work on a What We Do In The Shadows sequel, and adaptations of The Incal and Barn 8. Back in November 2023, Taika suggested there was no rush for his Star Wars movie.He told Entertainment Tonight: 'At the moment, I'm still developing something with them. Like me, they have a lot of projects going on. I think they're gonna push it until I finish these other projects.'I've got about four other scripts that I'm trying to finish. My thing is I want to take my time with that and get it right. I don't want to rush this movie.'