Thor: Ragnarok changed the trajectory of Marvel’s God of Thunder in a big way back in 2017. The franchise found new life with director Taika Waititi taking a hard turn into comedy and sending Chris Hemsworth to a more zany corner of the cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he even brought Mark Ruffalo as Hulk along with him. And when the filmmaker gets back behind the camera for Thor: Love and Thunder next year, it’s only going to get crazier.
Wired recently spoke with Taika Waititi about his plans for Thor: Love and Thunder, and while the director was reluctant to reveal anything specific beyond what we already know about the sequel, he did offer up this tease:
“It’s going to be bigger and louder and more bombastic. It’s only interesting to me if we’re doubling down on how nuts Ragnarok was.”
One of the most consistent critiques of Marvel movies is that they all look and feel the same. In some cases, that’s a valid criticism, but Thor: Ragnarok really shook up the Thor franchise in a variety of ways, and it allowed for the character to have one of the best character arcs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame came around. So the challenge is to keep fans on their toes when it comes to keeping Thor’s journey marching forward.
The most refreshing thing about Thor: Love and Thunder will undoubtedly be the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, who will be picking up Mjolnir as The Mighty Thor this time, inspired by Jason Aaron’s comic book arc. Waititi even pitched it to the actress as doing something much different than she was able to do in the franchise before. He told Variety:
“I just said to her, ‘Are you interested in coming back to this thing, but doing something really different?’ Because another thing, no one wants to keep repeating themselves and no one wants to play the same characters all the time. And I think for her, just coming back reprising that character but in this whole fresh new way, is really what I think would interest anyone. Especially, in most of these films, if you’re not a superhero… do you really want to keep doing that? I mean, I wouldn’t. I would want to come back and change things up.”
Fans are undoubtedly excited to see what Natalie Portman can do as The Mighty Thor, but we still don’t know if they’ll be adapting the powerful cancer storyline from the comics yet. That’s something fans want to see for sure, but Waititi doesn’t necessarily like the idea of simply giving fans what they want. He said:
“You want to listen to the fans to a point. But also you don’t want to have a completely fan-made film because then it doesn’t feel like there’s any point. You want to have people surprised.”
If there’s one thing Taika Waititi is good at doing, it’s surprising us with something great. After all, the guy is coming off playing Hitler as a 10-year old’s imaginary friend in Jojo Rabbit (expanding to more theaters this weekend), so you never know what to expect.
Thor: Love and Thunder is slated to arrive in theaters on November 5, 2021
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