The director of Thor: Love and Thunder, Taika Waititi, did not want to please Thor fans with his second film about the god of Asgard. In fact, I wanted to make a movie they wouldn’t want.
During an interview with the Associated Press, the 46-year-old filmmaker explained that he wanted to turn the Thor sequel into a love story.
“I wanted to show him a light that most Thor fans really wouldn’t want if you told them,” Waititi said. “If you told them, ‘Yeah, I’ll make Thor fall in love,’ it’s probably the last thing a Thor fan really wants to hear.”
Thor: Love and Thunder sees the return of Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, Thor’s love interest in the first film, who has been absent since her appearance in Thor: The Dark World in 2013.
Now he is back, and Mjolnir has turned him into the Mighty Thor, giving him his powers. Where does this leave Thor? Well, it’s not exactly his usual and powerful self …
“For me, it’s good to give fans something they don’t know they want,” Waititi said. “Especially with Ragnarok, when I signed up, a lot of fans were scared about it. They said, ‘Who’s this guy?’ He will take our precious Thor and ruin it. And I said, ‘Yes. Exactly. This is exactly my intention. And I will do better, only you don’t know it yet ‘”.
IGN’s own review said that Thor: Love and Thunder is “MCU’s first romantic comedy and plays with these troops in delightful ways.”
Thor’s cast: love and thunder
With the addition of new gods and a wider cosmic pantheon than we’ve seen before, it looks like Thor: Love and Thunder will expand the MCU like never before. But will Thor become the Thor fans who want to see him at the end of the movie? You will need to be vigilant to find out.
Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson and Russel Crowe. Taika Waititi directed the film based on a screenplay she wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.