By The “Thor” film franchise has been a strange one. Kenneth Branagh got the toughest brief of the first phase of Marvel and delivered the first film – a space opera with Shakespearean overtones that fared fairly well.
The hope was the sequel would improve, but the hiring of “Game of Thrones” episode directo Alan Taylor led to a grounded fantasy film that’s often considered one of the worst Marvel movies made.
The franchise was at a low with star Chris Hemsworth considering quitting until New Zealand director Taika Waititi came aboard and turned it into a sci-fi comedy that was rapturously received.
However that schtick began and with the fourth film ‘Love and Thunder’, Waititi excessively doubled down on the whimsy resulting in a film that was still financially successful but not well regarded.
In a recent interview with EW, Waititi discussed his memories of directing “Thor: Ragnarok” in 2017 and how it changed his life:
“That really propelled me into the nerdosphere, if you will. 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!’
It’s like, ‘What, you mean again?’ 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.’”
He won them over at the time, and then again with his work on The Mandalorian” as director and an onscreen voice role:
“Speaking of angry nerds, Star Wars, Mandalorian. This is what brought the nerds back. They were like, ‘Okay, you get a pass on this one.’ My favorite memory of this was turning up to set and getting to direct 75 stormtroopers. And the little boy inside me, who I’ve kept locked away, he just tried to leap out, and be, ‘Yay, this is my dream come true!’ ‘All right, shut up, kid,’ and I locked him back, I pushed him back down.”
Waititi notably didn’t have much to say about ‘Love and Thunder’ beyond praising his cast. The comments come as Waititi’s wife, British singer/actress Rita Ora, has been rumored to have snagged a villain role in the MCU.
The Sun reports that Ora was overheard at the British Fashion Awards where someone reportedly commented on her outfit looking like a Marvel baddie and she allegedly responded that she has a part in a new Marvel film as “someone evil” and she’s keen to do it.
The post Waititi Reflects On Early “Thor” Nerd Backlash appeared first on Dark Horizons.
