Taika Waititi Slams ‘Klara and the Sun’ Critics as ‘Irrelevant,’ ‘Sad Lost Souls’ and Says He Hasn’t ‘Read a Review’ in 15 Years: ‘But I Do Listen to the People’

Taika Waititi has taken to social media to defend “Klara and the Sun” amid poor reviews and bleak box office numbers, sharing an Instagram post featuring the film’s poster and its Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 78%. (In contrast, the critic score is 28% — the “Jojo Rabbit” director’s lowest yet).

“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,” Waititi wrote in his caption. “So this Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.”

When it debuted in theaters last weekend, “Klara and the Sun” landed at a staggering No. 15 with just $720,000 from 880 locations, and Sony scaled back its theatrical footprint after reviews panned the movie as a “calamitous” and “strained, whimsical comedy that’s ruinous.”

Jenna Ortega, who stars as the film’s titular android, also recently revealed in a Vogue interview that she doesn’t read reviews of her films because “that would send me into a psychosis of some sort” or check the box office updates when her team sends them her way because “I don’t want it to become a numbers thing.”

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, “Klara and the Sun” takes place in a dystopian future as an obsolete companion android (Ortega) tries to bond with her new owner, a young sick girl named Josie.