Credit: Marvel, edited by ITMTaika Waititi is speaking out about his experiences directing Thor movies for Marvel Studios, and it can be summed up in four words: “bottom of the barrel.”
The acclaimed writer-director (and frequent actor) is best known for directing Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), two Marvel movies that arguably helped change the direction of the franchise. While two previous films starring Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder leaned into the Shakespearian tragedy of the Asgardian royal family and their dark secrets, Taika Waititi brought a comedic, anarchic element that quickly turned the character’s image around.
Along with James Gunn (who has since departed Marvel Studios to run rival DC Studios), Taika Waititi helped inject a sense of levity and fun into the increasingly dramatic Infinity Saga, to much success. Ragnarok grossed over $850 million in theaters, blowing the previous film Thor: The Dark World (2013) out of the water, and was critically acclaimed, holding 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also introduced fan-favorite characters like Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (voiced by Waititi), both of whom have become mainstays of the greater MCU.
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Ragnarok was followed by Love and Thunder, which reunited Chris Hemsworth with Natalie Portman and brought in Christian Bale as a much-anticipated villain. The film received far more mixed reactions than its predecessor and underperformed financially, acting as one of the first signs of Marvel Studios’ diminishing box office dominance.
Now, it seems like Taika Waititi is done with the MCU entirely. He has previously said in interviews that he did not mind if Kevin Feige found a new director for Thor 5, and now has begun speaking pretty candidly about the franchise. The filmmaker recently appeared on an episode of the Smartless podcast (hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett) and revealed that making Marvel Cinematic Universe movies was not part of his plan, and in fact, he did them for one big reason: money.
Waititi told the interviews, “You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor, and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’”
The director continued, “And Thor, let’s face it — it was probably the least popular franchise. I never read Thor comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like, ‘Ugh.’ And then I did some research on it, and I read one Thor comic or 18 pages, or however long they are.”
Related: Chris Hemsworth’s Thor Legacy May Be Ending at Marvel as New Franchise Rises Up
To be fair, Taika Waititi was correct. When he was announced to direct Ragnarok, the Thor movies were in the lowest percentile of Marvel movies in terms of box office performance, except the standalone film The Incredible Hulk (2008). That questionable record has since been defeated by The Marvels.
According to him, Taika Waititi was surprised that Marvel Studios even approached him and basically assumed the studio was struggling for new ideas, saying, “I think there was no place left for them to go with that…Well, they’ve called me in, this is really the bottom of the barrel.”
Waititi may not be burning bridges with Disney just yet, but it’s pretty clear how he feels about Marvel.
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