Taika Waititi has ideas for Thor 5
Nothing has been greenlit for a new Thor, but Taika Waititi has some vague ideas
Aux News Thor
Marvel has had a rocky entry into its post-Endgame era, and that includes Thor: Love & Thunder. Chris Hemsworth’s hero was the only one so far to receive a fourth solo film, and it premiered to mixed reviews. The collaboration between Hemsworth and director Taika Waititi seemed to be a friendly and fruitful one, but in retrospect, even Hemsworth thinks Love & Thunder became “too silly” (as he told GQ). If he were to do another Thor, it would have to be “drastically different version in tone, everything, just for my own sanity,” he’s said.
Well, Waititi has some ideas, according to the Thor: Love and Thunder The Official Movie Special book (via ScreenRant). “What is left to do to him? It’s got to be something that feels like it’s carrying on with the evolution of the character, but still in a very fun way and still giving him things to come up against that feel like they’re building on the obstacles that he has to overcome,” Waititi mused about a prospective Thor 5 in the book. “I don’t think we can have a villain that’s weaker than Hela. I feel like we need to step up from there and add a villain that’s somehow more formidable.”
Waititi is apparently interested in—or at the very least, sees the potential in—exploring the Norse mythology inherent to Thor’s origin. He’s also interested in pitting the superhero against “more and more outlandish and crazy beasts, monsters, and aliens” as his role in the MCU “lends itself towards big, inventive, colorful creatures and aliens and things from different worlds.”
The filmmaker elaborated, “There’s a fun element to [Thor] and he has a casualness and a sort or swagger about him when he visits these worlds and encounters these aliens that I don’t think you’d get when it’s an earthling traveling through space exploring the universe.”
Hemsworth has stated that he wasn’t even sure he’d be invited back to play the character, though if he wanted to Marvel would no doubt roll out the red carpet again. “I’ve always said our interest in making additional stories is somewhat about continuing the character, [but] it’s almost entirely about continuing the experience with the actor. I think of all of our cast, not as their individual characters, but as the Marvel players who within that character can grow and evolve and change,” MCU boss Kevin Feige said back in 2022. “And if we look at the comics as our guide, there are plenty of other incarnations of Thor that we have yet to see.”
Though Feige teased that there are “lots” of Thor stories he’d like to adapt, if Hemsworth returned—which he has said he’s open to—it might be the last time. “I feel like we’d probably have to close the book if I ever did it again, you know what I mean?” the actor said in an interview with Vanity Fair last year. “I feel like it probably warrants that. I feel like it’d probably be the finale, but that’s not based on anything anyone’s told me or any sort of plans. You have this birth of a hero, the journey of a hero, then the death of a hero, and I don’t know—am I at that stage? Who knows?”
37 Comments
Man, this writers’ strike is really kicking in. I understand the need to constantly churn out content so the AV Club can sell me whatever Chuck Norris is trying to do with that knife, but an article about a vague idea of something that may or may not happen years from now? Pretty thin. Since there’s not much new on the books, how about a well written, interesting and thoughtful analysis of something in our cultural history that doesn’t come in the form of a slideshow?
Content on the AVClub has boiled down to “ let’s overreact to a broad, noncommittal statement” long before the strike or ai came into play
Or recapping and reviewing all the shows and movies out there that they’ve been ignoring.
Sorry, missed that, I was reading this ad on my phone telling me how I can block ads on my phone.
You know, what they’ve done in the past is deep-dive, long-form critical analyses on previously-released movies, books, music, and video gam-Oh, wait. They fired all those people capable of that, fucked off to Cal-eye-for-knee-aaay, and turned into a content mill.
Thor needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine.
“Thor and Loki’s Excellent Adventure”. Loki already has the “access to a time machine” bit covered.
No. No. Nonononononononononono.
I would not mind seeing Hemsworth reprise the role, although i thought he had stepped away from acting for awhileTaika Waititi should not be allowed near Thor again imo. That said, i tend to think of Thor 4 as Korg’s bedtime story to kids and that he is an extremely unreliable narrator, so that a lot of events either happened differently or even not at all, while other more serious things were left out or glossed over. Kind of like how Quantumania would’ve been if the whole movie had been narrated by Luis, altho in that case i think it would be a huge improvement.
I like that take on Thor:L&T — Korg the very unreliable narrator telling a story to kids. Definitely makes sense (especially because he is the one literally telling the story), but I hadn’t really thought about the fact that he probably was making things up, getting things wrong, and ignoring stuff that didn’t fit the story he was telling to the kids.
i feel like there is comic precedent as well… for example X-Men Annual 8 which is all a fairytale about Kitty Pryde and her dragon Lockheed told around a campfire. or even within Thor’s own title, issue 356 which is a tale told by Hercules in which he is the noble and superior hero while Thor is somewhat oafish and weak in comparison (the tone of that is almost as cartoonish as Waititi). Anyway its certainly not how the movie was intended to be taken but it just makes it easier for me to enjoy it for the fun scenes and worry less about the abrupt tonal shifts
Just James Gunn, Jon Watts, and Peyton Reed (and Quantumania was a disappointment) have done a third movie in an MCU series. The Russos did 4 movies, but 2 were Cap and 2 were Avengers. Favreau, Whedon, Russos, Coogler, Waititi himself have done 2, though I bet Coogler gets a third BP if he wants it.
as for a thor 5, i wouldn’t mind something with more of a pure fantasy/ lotr vibe with dragons and such even though they did have a skeleton dragon in Ragnarok. I don’t think the mcu has really done that although there are some nods here and there. Ulik the troll could appear too, pre-Walt Simonson it felt like he was a recurring Thor villain.They can still do Beta Ray Bill too altho it might be anticlimactic and weird after having Jane become Thor. Bring back the warriors three somehow would be nice, altho of course they ‘d need to recast. There’s still a number of other Asgardians we haven’t met, Balder ,the Enchantress, Karnilla, Bors, etc.
Just throw him into a cage with some VFX artists from Thor 4 and film the results. I imagine that the results would be rather popular in some quarters.
Do any of these ideas involve him going far, far away from this project and the MCU as a whole?
Hemsworth’s comments make me hopeful a fifth film (which really isn’t necessary) might be a vast improvement over L&T. By all that is holy, I can do without goats, Korg, and cutesy Thor antics. In fact, I would be fine if Waititi stepped away. Ragnarok was fantastic, but I’m tiring of the director’s schtick.I loved Bale’s character and performance, and like Blanchett’s it brings a needed bit of darkness into these otherwise jovial films. Just, fucking please, no more goats or Korg.
If those damn goats appear in anything ever again I am going to literally (yes, literally) explode.And I’m fine with no more Thor films. L&T turned me off of the franchise for good.
The goats are a minor running gag that never quite lands, and yet they’re one of the better ideas in the film. In an otherwise good movie, it would be a minor detraction easily overlooked. In T:L&T it’s a glowing beacon of everything wrong with the movie.
The GNR only soundtrack alone makes me unable to trust any of his filmmaking instincts
His Thor movies went from cutesy, to cutesy-wootsey. What’s next, cutesy-wootsey-patootsey?
Can we bring Natalie Portman back for the patootsey part? If the answer is yes, then I fully endorse the cutesy-wootsey-patootsey approach to Thor 5.
I think the most frustrating thing about Thor 4 to me wasn’t even the level of humor being dialed up to 11. It was the fact that the world-building is extremely inconsistent with what’s been established in the MCU and Thor so far and doesn’t really explain what a “god” is or what the stakes/limitations are.The first Thor film went out of its way to show that these aren’t actual “gods”, they’re just more advanced beings that humans regarded as “gods”, who possess superior technology.Ego said he was a “small g” god in Guardians 2, and he’s immensely powerful, but he still seemed to fall more into an “extraterrestrial being” more than a fantastical god. All of that’s still a far cry from what we jump to in Thor 4. Suddenly a “god” is basically a magic creature, they can even be a cartoon character. And all the gods get together and hang out. Every religion is real, and all the gods associated with them are real, including Greek mythology, Wakandan religion, Korg’s silly religion based apparently on rock-paper-scissors, etc.
I dearly hope that after 4 we are taking away his keys and sending him home. You don’t get to take another turn after that.
Just give me a Thor movie with less Korg and voice-over narration, that isn’t constantly tripping over its own tone Waititi.
What if Thor had an imaginary friend but the twist is that it’s Hitler?
The twist is that it’s Thanos.
I’m fine with them just never revisiting Thor. It’s weird that they never made a standalone movie taking place entirely on Asgard, with fleshed out roles for the Warriors Three and more palace intrigue and stuff, but that ship sailed after they blew up Asgard and killed off all but a few hundred Asgardians (including Thor’s entire supporting cast).
More Norse mythology, fine. More outlandish beasts, even better. I’ve never read the comics so I have no background, and I didn’t expect to like this character, but he’s been humbled and he’s matured and he turned out to be the most comedic of the Marvel giants. I’ll watch him in anything. Add Waititi and it’s going to be a hit.
Go the Witcher route and cast Liam Hemsworth XD
The obv choice is Michael Cera.
He should be done. Flavor of the month and time is up
The silliness wasn’t even the worst thing for me about Love and Thunder. The worst thing was that in a world with flying cars, interstellar travel, arc reactors and time travel, cancer is still a serious disease that people actually get.
Y’all need to fact check your articles better lol. That quote was Waititi talking about developing Thor: Love and Thunder. I thought him talking about comparing a new villain to Hela, the villain of Ragnarok, would be enough to clue people in, but apparently not.
I’m all for Taika getting another crack at Thor provided he’s given time to refine the script. Love & Thunder felt like a rushed first draft, whereas Ragnarok felt like a fairly polished third draft and was all the better for it. Telling a story with smaller stakes would also help.
Thor 5 wasn’t too silly, it was too morose, the second half is really dour and unpleasant: kids being terrified, a woman dying of cancer, a heartsick father who’s now murdering gods in his agony; etc. It’s not fun. Even the lighter first half of the movie is generally blase’, there’s nothing anywhere near as fun as the set pieces in Ragnarok.Wakanda Taekwondo should focus on the ass-beating and less on the feels.
There were myriad of issues with Thor 4, the villain ain’t one of them.
Thor gets AIDS and his new daughter starves to death but hey, MOAR SCREAMING GOATS!!! SO FUNNY!