‘Jojo Rabbit’ Director Taika Waititi Reveals Why He Decided to Play ‘Adolf’ Hitler | Rotten Tomatoes

Taika Waititi’s follow-up to ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is not the kind of film many might have expected to come next from the man who just delivered a hyper-kinetic and multi-colored jolt of energy to the MCU. There are no superpowers in ‘Jojo Rabbit’ – unless you’re talking geopolitical – just the story of a nationalistic young boy in Nazi Germany who discovers his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic and who converses with his imaginary friend, Adolf, in order to cope with it all. The film is billed as an “anti-hate satire” and is generating Oscar buzz for Waititi (who also stars as the imaginary Adolf, a surreal version of Hitler) and co-star Scarlett Johansson who plays Jojo’s (Roman Griffin Davis) mom. Ahead of the movie’s release, we sat down with Waititi for an extended chat about why he decided to play a version of the dictator himself, working with kids, and bringing unexpected color and humor to a dark time in world history.