If ever one needed proof that Hollywood can be prone to supping rather too enthusiastically from the electric Kool-Aid, let us look at the curious case of Taika Waititi and Warner Bros’ glacially gestating remake of the classic 1988 anime Akira. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the celebrated Kiwi japester has removed himself from the project, at least temporarily, after being asked to direct the as-yet-untitled Thor 4 for Marvel Studios. The real question is why Warner ever thought Waititi was the right director to take on Akira – or indeed why the idea of a Hollywood live action reworking of Katsuhiro Otomo’s far-out tale of exploding teenagers was ever picked up by the studio.

When Marvel plucked Waititi from relative obscurity (sorry, fans of What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople) and handed him the keys to Asgard for the revitalised Thor: Ragnarok, it proved a stroke of genius. The New Zealander found the comedian in star Chris Hemsworth by blending his own fondness for absurdist comedy with the rampaging space-opera high jinks of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Two years later, the son of Odin is the first Marvel superhero the studio turns to when in need of comic relief – hence Thor’s emergence as a cuddlier, more “emotionally open” version of himself in Avengers: Endgame.

From a position where the Thor movies were something of an embarrassment to the rest of the franchise (2013’s The Dark World in particular), the God of Thunder now finds himself at the apex of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s even been allowed to join the Guardians temporarily while he recovers from Thanos-induced PTSD and raging alcoholism. All this is down to Waititi and his remarkable ability to spot how these movies should be made – to effectively rewrite a character that had already appeared in more than half a dozen Marvel episodes so that nobody remembers the old, dour, boring Thor is an achievement indeed.

Apex of the universe … Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Ragnarok. Photograph: Marvel Entertainment

Given the choice between overseeing the Norse deity’s continuing adventures and directing the problematic Akira, it’s no wonder Waititi plumped for the former. The son of Odin has the entire galaxy to explore, while any film-maker taking on the anime adaptation would first have to free it from a box marked “cultural appropriation”. Waititi has said that he would look for Asian actors to play the key roles (presumably Shotaro Kaneda and Tetsuo Shima), which is more appropriate than the path Paramount took when casting Scarlett Johansson as an originally Japanese character in Ghost in the Shell. But there are still issues regarding the remake’s setting.

In 2011, when Jaume Collet-Serra was due to direct Akira, Warner planned to relocate the storyline from Neo-Tokyo to the US, which would have completely undermined the Japanese cultural fascination with atomic destruction that inspired the anime and the manga it was based on. It is not clear whether Waititi would have taken the same direction.

There’s also a problem of tone. While Waititi’s sly sense of humour is perfect for the Marvel universe, it is difficult to say whether it would sync with Akira’s steely, doom-laden style. Given his previous form, he could be tempted to poke fun at the subject matter as he reforged it in his own image. This would be a recipe for disaster, given the reverence in which the original anime is held. Waititi is a standout comedy film-maker, but while it should be clear to all why the vampire movie was ripe for satire in What We Do in the Shadows, it’s not so easy to see how Akira fits his style.

Thor 4 seems a much better bet. Waititi has already saved Thor from a fate worse than Ragnarok, and his only dilemma should be whether to keep him looking a little overweight or return him to his muscular origins. Even here, there is the potential for incurring the ire of those who wonder quite reasonably why Thor’s post-Thanos distress had to be played out through a fatsuit. If Waititi gets lucky, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 will hit cinemas first, and the problem could end up in James Gunn’s lap instead.