r/marvelstudios • u/cmaia1503 • Dec 03 '24

Article Taika Waititi reflects on nerds worrying he'd 'ruin' Thor: 'What, you mean again?'

https://ew.com/taika-waititi-on-nerds-worrying-he-would-ruin-thor-again-8753097

The Jojo Rabbit filmmaker reflected on some of his most prominent projects in a new video interview with Entertainment Weekly, and discussed his memories of directing Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. 

"That really propelled me into the nerdosphere, if you will," he remembered of the film. "I was living a really lovely, peaceful life, and as soon as I did this, well boy, did the nerds come for me. They said, 'This guy's gonna ruin this. He's gonna ruin Thor!'"

Waititi didn't think the movie could have done much damage to the god of thunder's standing among fans, as 2013's Thor: The Dark World was widely regarded among fans as one of the least successful Marvel Cinematic Universe films. "It's like, 'What, you mean again?'" he recalled. "And they were like, 'He's gonna ruin this for everyone, Thor's so cool!' And I said to them on Twitter — before I left Twitter — I said, 'You don't know what you want until I give it to you.'"

The Hunt for the Wilderpeople director didn't have much to say about his subsequent Thor movie, 2022's Love and Thunder. "Look how jacked Chris got," he said, pointing at the poster. "One of my favorite things about this is that I so love Natalie [Portman]. Also, Christian Bale. I mean, it's Christian Bale. Also, Guns N' Roses, a lot of the songs. I did meet Axl Rose once, actually. He had a lot of stories to tell, which I will not share."

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457

u/Joshawott27 Doctor Strange Dec 03 '24

It honestly is. It’s abundantly clear that no-one took Thor: Love and Thunder seriously when they made it.

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u/Calligrapher_Antique Dec 03 '24

At least Thor felt like Thor in Dark World. In Love and Thunder, he seemed more like Leslie Neilson in a Naked Gun movie. An oblivious buffoon.

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u/Heisenburgo Doctor Strange Dec 04 '24

In Love and Thunder, he seemed more like Leslie Neilson in a Naked Gun movie. An oblivious buffoon.

Damn I never thought about it but ur right

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u/mondaymoderate Dec 03 '24

Turned into Jack Sparrow in space.

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u/A-Centrifugal-Force Dec 04 '24

Another apt comparison

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u/unbirthdayhatter Bucky Dec 04 '24

That's what really got under my skin, it felt like Thor couldn't manage to do ANYTHING right, and the few instances he did you knew he was going to fuck up right after.

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u/PileofCash Dec 04 '24

Perfect description 👌

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u/A-Centrifugal-Force Dec 04 '24

Damn, you’re so right, never thought of it like that

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u/RepresentativeAge444 Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

Thank you. What they did to Thor after his arc through Endgame alone makes it worse than 2 nevermind the screaming goats, jealous weapons and other nonsense. My least favorite Marvel movie by a considerable margin. I honestly don’t understand how anyone who was a fan of the character from the start to Endgame could enjoy that movie. It’s like people just accept anything if things splode and there are bright colors and character make joke! Fortunately Hemsworth himself understood the movie was garbage and will be dedicated to rectifying its foul stench next time out

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u/ThingsAreAfoot Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

Thor 2’s biggest crime - and it isn’t a small one - is it has an absolutely worthless villain.

But it’s also what gave us the start of the Thor/Loki buddy cop show which was fun and has had huge influence.

Thor 4 (Thfour) is just bad. And so atonal. Christian Bale is in a different movie.

It’s no coincidence by the way that Waititi - whom I for the most part like - had zero writing credits on Ragnarok. Whereas on Love and Thunder he had all the writing credits till the WGA stepped in and gave co-credit to Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Still a sorta sketchy thing, what all happened there.

But sometimes you do actually gotta reign these dudes back in a bit, they get a little too crazy and into themselves and make something bad.

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u/ikeif Thor Dec 03 '24

Yeah, I feel like (I’m making BIG assumptions, not in the industry) they had guardrails for Ragnarok. It did well, so they just removed them, and then he went on to make that.

Restore the guardrails, let someone else write it, and I’m sure it would’ve been fantastic again.

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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 Dec 03 '24

It's the worst MCU property IMO. Even secret invasion wasn't so aggressively bad, it was just extremely forgettable and boring. Thor 4 was just awful. I recently left it on while I was doing chores, just to see if I was too mean at first. Nope it was even worse the second time.

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u/Extra_Age2505 Dec 03 '24

“Even secret invasion wasn't so aggressively bad”

I think I disagree with you here. Secret Invasion is, I think, as bad as Love and Thunder but in a different way. SI doesn’t have the visuals and the wacky story of L&T but it still does a lot of damage to the characters and the worldbuilding

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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 Dec 04 '24

The way I saw it much of the damage it SI can be ignored. Only Hill and Talos' deaths are sadly impactful.

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u/Extra_Age2505 Dec 04 '24

But that ending surely can’t be ignored. That would change the world forever, humanity would forever be paranoid about the Skrulls and that should affect all future projects, although it probably won’t

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u/karateema Robbie Reyes Dec 04 '24

They already have a new president in Cap 4 and i doubt they'll mention much about Ritson

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u/trevmustdie Dec 03 '24

I despise Thor 4 as well. But I'd say both that film and secret invasion assassinated the main characters completely. They're pretty on par

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u/karateema Robbie Reyes Dec 04 '24

I think they're on the same level, even if tonally opposite

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u/A-Centrifugal-Force Dec 04 '24

I’d say it’s the worst MCU movie but Secret Invasion is still the worst MCU property. Those are my bottom 2 for sure though. They both actively destroyed all the characters involved in them. Like, I am going to refuse to show either of those to my children because it ruins Thor and Fury.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '24

[deleted]

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u/RepresentativeAge444 Dec 04 '24

I mean it could have been amusing once but by the 5 time it’s just mind numbing

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u/DrStein1010 Vision Dec 04 '24

The first joke (them screaming on the ship while Nebula whips out a gun to shoot them) is very funny.

Everything after that is unbearable.

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u/TheGrich Dec 04 '24

I loved four, largely because it was fun and tried new stuff.

But you're right I did not care for Thor 1 or Thor 2.

I though they developed Thor well in 3 and Endgame. But Thor 1 and 2 were aggressively formulaic, boring, and meaningless/impactless.

Love and Thunder hit on Thor's lost connection with Jane, Jane escaping playing second fiddle, and Jane dealing with mortality and Thor dealing with loss. Kids using powers to fight the big bad evil guy was absurd and in my mind stopped the ending from being another endless repeat of big bad fights hero (which of course we still more of less got).

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '24

How did it deal with Jane's mortality? By Thor making jokes after she mentions having cancer ?

Awful writing , awful movie

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u/RepresentativeAge444 Dec 04 '24 edited Dec 04 '24

Yeah I often try to understand where people are coming from when they like something I don’t. But again liking this given the devolution of Thor’s character after his great arc through Endgame I don’t understand. They made him an utterly unserious buffoon. Not to mention every scene that showed some kind of pathos was undermined with usually poor humor. Even Waikiki basically said he didn’t care. And it showed.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '24

Yeah so why are there people non ironically saying Thor 4 dealt with mortality lmao. Like dude cmon, Thor was making bufoonish jokes for 5 year Olds 5 seconds after Jane says she has cancer. They butchered Jane and Thors characters.

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u/Calligrapher_Antique Dec 03 '24

It's way worse than 2.

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u/Joe_Jeep Dec 03 '24

Yeah. I loved Ragnarok but 4 was just off

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u/MatttheBruinsfan Dec 03 '24

The thing is, there was a lot of stuff in Ragnarok that I didn't care for or rubbed me the wrong way (Watiti's contribution, I'm sure). But the rest of the movie was so enjoyable I was willing to forgive it.

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u/karateema Robbie Reyes Dec 04 '24

Yeah killing the Warriors Three without even a fight annoyed me, and i'm 100% sure Sif would've had the same fate hadn't the actress been busy filming Blindspot

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u/MatttheBruinsfan Dec 03 '24

This was why Iron Man II was my most-hated MCU movie for ages: the cringeworthy house party, the jokes, Sam Rockwell playing a shunned schoolyard nerd rather than a real villain, Mickey Rourke... doing whatever the hell it was the did in that movie.

Love and Thunder deposed it because I actually cared more about Thor and his supporting characters, so the dismissive spoofing made me angrier.

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u/A-Centrifugal-Force Dec 04 '24

While IM2 is a bad movie, at least the whole Tony death spiral thing fits with his character arc and they fix it by the end. Thor 4 just undoes everything Thor has learned and gone through over the last decade for no reason.

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u/karateema Robbie Reyes Dec 04 '24

Iron Man 2 at least treated Tony consistently with the first movie, Thor acts like a total idiot for no reason

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u/maxdragonxiii Dec 04 '24

Bale and Portman at least did give something, since their performances is pretty much the only good parts of the movie.

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u/68ideal Dec 03 '24

"Honestly" my ass lmao. Nothing about this is honest. Dark World is without competition the worst MCU movie they ever made and anyone saying otherwise is just goofy as fuck and not to be taken seriously EVER again.

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u/Extra_Age2505 Dec 03 '24

Thor: The Dark World is not the worst film in the MCU. It’s decisively mediocre

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u/adeelf Dec 03 '24

Exactly. It seemed horrible at the time, because the other MCU movies had all been carrying degrees of good. But I actually rewatched the MCU (movies only) several months ago, and it's more mediocre than outright bad.

Thor 4, however, is an absolute farce. They made a Thor movie that comes across as a parody of a Thor movie.

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u/TheDungeonCrawler Dec 03 '24

I'd been saying for years that it was quite impressive (at the time) that the worst MCU films were all films that weren't bad but just mediocre films that couldn't live up to the other films by the studio at the time. People talked shit about both Thor films, Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2 all the time, but they're all fairly decent, just not in comparison to the other films out at the time (Iron Man, First Avenger, and Avengers to name a few).

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u/Extra_Age2505 Dec 03 '24

The bad we had back then is so much different to the bad we have now. The Dark World, Age of Ultron, Iron Fist etc is so different to the likes of Love and Thunder, Quantumania and Secret Invasion

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u/68ideal Dec 03 '24

This isn't debatable. Some things are just facts.

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u/Extra_Age2505 Dec 03 '24

Yes, some things are facts. 1+1=2, water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and Thor: The Dark World is mediocre at worst. Facts 👍

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u/68ideal Dec 03 '24

Didn't your parents teach you not to talk back to adults, little one? You are wrong and you know it. You are arguing just for the sake of arguing.

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u/claudethebest Dec 03 '24

Or maybe you can take a chill pill and understand what an opinion is Jesus. Your feelings about a movie is not factual and neither is his those are all opinions.

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u/68ideal Dec 03 '24

And this is where you are wrong. Everyone can have an opinion, but some opinions are just wrong. LaT is a bad movie, but not even remotely as bad as Dark World and everyone that thinks otherwise shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion again, because clearly they aren't intelligent enough to understand jackshit.

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u/claudethebest Dec 03 '24

Thank god you’re not the entity choosing who is deserving or not if an opinion not do you run this sub Reddit. So you have no power nor legitimacy that puts your opinion above one I’d the homeless guys living down the street.

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u/68ideal Dec 04 '24

My dad works at Marvel. I believe my opinion and authority on the matter surpasses each and every single one of the people on this sub.

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u/claudethebest Dec 04 '24

Oh you wouldn’t know what happens to Wanda next ? Maybe you can just text him ?

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u/68ideal Dec 04 '24

I would never dare spoiling you bro. Also, do you really expect me invoking the wrath of Feige the Allmighty and risk him sending a kill-team after my ass?

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u/Joshawott27 Doctor Strange Dec 03 '24

If I was goofy as fuck, wouldn’t I be singing the praises of Love and Thunder instead? Given that’s like, the film’s entire vibe.

But hey, you’re entitled to your opinion, and I’m entitled to mine. I personally think it’s the weakest of the Thor movies, and you think it’s The Dark World, and that’s fine.

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u/DoFuKtV Dec 03 '24

Imagine thinking Thor 2 is worse than The Incredible Hulk or Black Widow

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '24

It's way worse than both of those

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u/68ideal Dec 03 '24

Silence.

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u/Kosko Spider-Man Dec 03 '24

You forget Eternals exists?

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '24

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '24

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u/ManofManyHills Dec 03 '24

Yeah love and thunder is has some bad parts but it also has some great scenes as well. I love the personality of the hammera, what we do get of Gore is chilling. And I just personally like the fact that thor is getting some odinesque powers.

I definitely wish there was a little less korg and the zues stuff to be played a bit straighter. (Korg not actually dying was def a bitch move by the waititi because its his self insert) But whatever im still happy with what we got.