Taika Waititi brought new life into the Thor franchise with Ragnarok. New comments from the director reveal that he only took the film to feed his kids.
It seems as though every day a new article hits the web with a new sensationalized quote from director Taika Waititi. This newest batch comes from his recent appearance on the Smartless podcast, where he spoke about his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When asked about why he joined Marvel, Waititi revealed he had no plans to join such a big franchise as an auteur, only deciding to direct Thor because he was poor and recently had his second child.
“You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films,” Taika Waititi explained. “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.’”
“And ‘Thor,’ let’s face it, it was probably the least popular franchise,” he continued. “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. I was still baffled by this character.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean Taika Waititi had no interest in the character. He recently spoke about how much he’s loved working with Marvel on the Thor franchise even if he won’t be returning for the next installment. What it does show is that the director has other ambitions beyond the MCU, and is more than happy to leave the franchise behind for greener pastures.
Hercules v Thor: Dawn of Thunder?
Taika Waititi’s comments regarding the MCU’s plans for Hercules are quite interesting. When you factor in the fact that recently, numerous titles were trademarked for Marvel Studios, one of those was Hercules: Rise of the Gods. Whether or not this is referring to a new film or TV series remains unknown, but this trademark was also listed alongside now-confirmed titles such as Captain America: New World Order, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Here is the synopsis for Thor: Love and Thunder:
The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.
Directed by Taika Waititi and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, the Thor solo film stars Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.
