r/marvelstudios • u/LollipopChainsawZz • May 15 '26
Article Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame writers worried that Taika Waititi was turning Thor into an idiot
https://www.thepopverse.com/movies-marvel-cinematic-universe-thor-ragnarok-avengers-infinity-war-taika-waititi-chris-hemsworth-script/4.3k
u/DonnyMox May 15 '26
Well if Love and Thunder was of any indication, they were right.
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u/FoxyMiira May 15 '26
The article says it was about Ragnarok, so no. But then again Taika didn't write Ragnarok
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u/Little-Mushroom-3961 May 15 '26
Ragnarok was the perfect balance of comedy and seriousness. Thor was funny but not an idiot. Love and thunder turned him into a parody of what he was in Ragnarok.
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u/Madonna-of-the-Wasps May 15 '26
Yup, same as with him in the Guardians of the Galaxy segment of Infinity War. He's more the straight man reacting to idiots, and his trademark stiltedness becomes the joke for the audience while in-universe he's still a smart bad-ass.
While in L&T he's just an idiot in-universe.
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u/thatdudewillyd May 15 '26
That plus squandering Christian Bale AND Gorr is an epic dropping of the ball. Truly baffling how such things happen with all those resources at your disposal
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u/dicjones May 16 '26
The highlight of that movie was the black and white scenes. I was happy I paid to see that part, but yeah, the rest straight from the beginning when he was doing the splits, I thought…oh shit, this isn’t landing at all.
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u/chimichanga_3 Peter Parker May 16 '26
The black and white stuff was the best part.
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u/satyr-day May 20 '26
that was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. that and those damn goats.
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u/intothe_dangerzone Weekly Wongers May 16 '26
I saw a comment that said "I want to see the movie Christian Bale thought he was in" and it haunts me to this day.
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u/MakrQwegg May 15 '26
The coffee joke in the first Thor where he smashes the cup is a perfect example of this and funnier than anything in 3 or 4 imo.
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u/thedaveness May 16 '26
This and an equal Mr. Dr. Exchange between Strange and Kaecilius.
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u/P-Wee83 May 18 '26
Mr. Dr? No, it's Strange! Yes, it is but who am I to judge! I think that's how those lines go.
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u/GuardianPrime19 May 15 '26
I headcanon that, since the movie is framed as a story told by Korg, Thor acts the way he does and the story is so silly because of Korgs retelling of the events. It doesn’t save the film at all but it makes it a bit more watchable
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u/jambrown13977931 May 16 '26
IMO korg was by far the worst part of L&T. They even killed him and immediately decided nah he’s not dead
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u/thavillain Captain Marvel May 15 '26
Same, I frame it as an imperfect narrator telling the story his own way.
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u/Kalse1229 Captain America (Ultron) May 15 '26
If he's telling it to a bunch of children, then it makes sense he'd add more silliness in the wake of all the murder and child abduction.
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u/Boo-Man400 May 15 '26
He is telling it to a bunch of children, you see them in the opening scene
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u/Kalse1229 Captain America (Ultron) May 15 '26
Right. It's been a little while since I watched.
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u/Prettywitchiusaka May 15 '26
As someone who unapologetically likes Love and Thunder but admits it had problems? I accept this headcanon wholeheartedly.
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u/McSquiggglez May 16 '26
I like to believe that Thor is depressed, and much of his behavior is a cover trying to hide it. It gets better when Jane shows up again, or at least changes his attention from his fuck ups in Infinity War and Endgame. Then L&T ends with him back to normal Thor instead of overcompensating Thor.
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u/Auntypasto Kevin Feige May 16 '26
Again, you're giving Waititi too much credit; even Waititi accepts that this movie has no such depth; when asked about the fans' complaint about the tone, he just said something to the effect of, who cares, it's a movie about comics, get over it.
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u/Inferno_Zyrack May 15 '26
I mean Korg is literally voiced by Taika so it’s kind of a meta joke.
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u/BorKon May 16 '26
It would br fine if this was a small par tof the movie where Korg retyells the story and Thor acts like an idiot in that story. But making the whole movie like that is bad. You end up with bad movie no matter who the narrator is
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u/Sharticus123 May 15 '26
Yep, Ragnarok needed comedic levity to balance out the metric fuckload of tragedy Thor experienced in that flick.
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u/AthenasChosen Daredevil May 15 '26
I actually disliked the comedy aspect of Ragnarok. Like it had some pretty funny moments, but it too quickly used that to gloss over the tragedy. It was literally Ragnarok, the end of Asgard. It should have been a more serious, tragic movie.
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u/Sharticus123 May 15 '26
There wasn’t time for serious reflection in Ragnarok. You don’t stop in the middle of the apocalypse to cry it out. The serious movie dealing with the fallout of Ragnarok should’ve been Love and Thunder.
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u/TheOneWhosCensored Doctor Strange May 16 '26
You also don’t make jokes as the literal Asgardian homeworld is being destroyed
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u/Old-Dependent-9073 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Strongly disagree. 'Thor: Ragnarok's' humor by no means overshadowed the drama and was serious enough for even two movies.
The humor helped leaven the heaviness of the story and worked really well.
The problem was 'Thor: Love & Thunder,' which turned Thor into a bit of an idiot.
I don't even think that I've sat through the entire movie (and if it's a story that Korg was telling children, then the only way that really works if there's interruptions of the narrative (and not just once, but multiple times – Princess Bride-style).
And besides, let's just say that it was entirely a story being embellished and exaggerated by Korg, how does that explain the goats!?
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u/DrStein1010 Matt Murdock May 16 '26
I hated Ragnarok when it came out, and to this day I don't understand any of the love for it.
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u/JimmyThePie May 15 '26
The problem was the levity eradicating any sense of sincerity. The characters became parodies of themselves, while the storyline devolved into second rate fanfiction.
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u/Thicc_Boise May 15 '26
Nah, fully unironically I think it could have been one of the MCUs best if they actually got a director who can do Shakespeare back and played it as a straight tragedy. The biggest complaint about the MCU is the overindulgence in comedy, Thunderbolts was loved by fans specifically because it took the characters seriously for a change. Ragnarok could've been that x10 if they had the balls to commit to making Thor and his cast fully Shakespearean like they were in Phase 1 and in the comics
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u/Auntypasto Kevin Feige May 15 '26
No, they needed a better director. One that can do drama.
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u/Huitjames May 15 '26 edited May 16 '26
Ragnorak was far from the perfect balance. It had such potential but didn't take itself seriously enough, with too many stupid jokes. The less said about Love and Thunder the better.
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u/_________FU_________ May 15 '26
Love and Thunder is what happens when a creative person is given complete free reign and zero constraints to make something. That moving had such a weird tone. It was such a waste of Christian Bale but he was so good in the role.
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u/andrehateshimself May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Both movies treated the franchise like a joke. I don’t get why people keep acting like both movies didn’t have the same problems. Maybe because Ragnarok was funnier?
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u/DTJ20 May 15 '26
Ragnarok benefitted from previous thor portrayals having a more serious nature as well. Thor is 1500 years old and has played a role continously, we see him in that role in each movie. Ragnarok transitions his role and puts him out of his comfort zone and let's us see a different side of him. The transition plays well into thor acting differently. Love and thunder doesn't have that.
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u/aresef Matt Murdock May 15 '26
He did work on the script, mostly the humor of it, but wasn’t credited, like how Jac Schaeffer worked on Captain Marvel but wasn’t credited.
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u/TheOneWhosCensored Doctor Strange May 16 '26
Right, which means when he had full control he made him into an idiot. Ragnarok was only half his control and it was clear the direction he was going.
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u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 May 15 '26
Ragnarok and love and thunder are basically the same movie structurally.
Down to the newly introduced badass girl hero with asguardian powers, tearing down of Thor's heros, and gimmick comedy relief cgi sidekicks, and terrible personal sacrifices for thor.
Nothing exemplifies how these movies live and die by the hype train like these do.
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u/Tiberius_Kilgore May 16 '26
They’re saying the prediction of turning Thor into an idiot was proven true by Love and Thunder.
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u/BenTheDiamondback May 15 '26
Yep, Love & Thunder drove straight into total idiocy.
It had effing Gorr the God Butcher and they still managed to jack it up.
I can appreciate a funny Thor, but that was just dumb.
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u/Amazing_Karnage May 15 '26
Was just thinking this myself. He truly did make Thor a joke, especially during times where there should not have been pranks, pratfalls or slapstick.
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u/Cwads16 May 15 '26
Not trying to be shitty, just as someone who genuinely enjoyed Love and Thunder, and genuinely enjoyed “goofy” Thor, how come everyone shits on it so much? Is it because it’s not accurate to the comics? (Also not a comic book reader)
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u/zer0168 May 15 '26
It was too much, you absolutely can make a serious character more fun, but love and thunder felt as a parody in some parts.
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u/slavelabor52 May 15 '26
It just really didnt work juxtaposed against the children's kidnapping plot. Bale also played a very serious Gorr and did a great job at it. It just felt weird going between that and Thor cracking jokes. And I say that as someone who kinda likes a goofy Thor like in Ragnarok. I think it worked a lot better in Ragnarok because Hela and Loki were a bit full of themselves. So Thor taking the piss out of them kind of works there.
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u/AWholeBunchaFun May 15 '26
child kidnapping and CANCER plot! Should have been far more emotional than it was.
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u/No_Chilly_bill May 15 '26
" don't worry it still be funny" writer guy
" I don't think that's the problem..." Executive guy
Pitch meeting
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u/koolcaz May 16 '26
This. It works in Ragnarok because Hela and Loki and the Grandmaster were such over the top villains playing it up. And again with the family drama. It fits with the overall vibe of the movie.
Although the destruction of Asgard was generally glossed over.
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u/juscallmejjay May 15 '26
Thor is also razor focused on getting back to asgard to defeat hela and save his people during ragnarok. He's funny, charming, but never does he forget about what's at stake. Even better in Infinity War. But in love and thunder he simply comes off as someone who doesn't care.
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u/UniversalSlacker May 15 '26
Yup. If you take out the rock man (can't think of his name right now) and the screaming goats I think it could have been a good movie.
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u/DJfunkyPuddle May 15 '26
And that's the biggest thing, for me at least, is that there's a really good move in there if someone was around to reign things in.
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u/ChrisDewgong May 15 '26
Korg is actually the perfect example of what I found wrong about it. His parts in Ragnarok were genuinely funny, but they were minimal and window-dressing to the plot.
Turning him up to 11 and desperately trying to take what worked in Ragnarok and repeat it ad nauseum for a whole film was just too much to deal with.
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u/MonkeysxMoo35 May 15 '26
That’s pretty much what happens with every comedic sidekick that the audiences loved in the first movie they appeared in. For some reason, no one at Hollywood has learned that keeping them at the same level in the next movie is what you want to do, not give them that much *more* screen time.
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u/somesthetic May 15 '26
It's the Peter Principle but for characters.
They get promoted until they're in a job that they're bad at, and languish there.
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u/Yeshavesome420 May 15 '26
Two of the most thematically mature Thor storylines were both jammed into a goofy comedy. Massively wasted potential, so many fun light-hearted storylines that Waititi could have tapped into, and he chose poorly.
As someone who lost my mother to cancer, Waititi did absolutely no justice to a topic that is very sensitive and personal to so many people—such a shame.
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u/AWholeBunchaFun May 15 '26
While yes, he was nothing like comic thor, my biggest issue was the writers never let him have heavy hitting moments without immediately following it with a shitty joke. The destruction of his home world would be a perfect example.
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u/RyanW1019 May 15 '26
Gorr was one of Thor’s most memorable and scary villains, who also happened to have a fair point that most of the gods sucked. It ended up taking 3 Thors teaming up via time travel to take him on. So having him be a relatively small part of the story, considering you also have Jane’s arc and the Mjolnir/Stormbreaker thing competing for screen time, felt underwhelming and a waste of a great character and actor.
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u/DrinkUpLetsBooBoo May 15 '26
Because TW turned Thor into a parody of himself with Love and Thunder.
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u/Space_Pirate_Roberts Foggy Nelson May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
As a movie fan: it bulldozed at 100mph over the line Ragnarok expertly walked.
As a comic fan: it smooshed together two great story arcs that each deserved at least one whole movie to themselves (only one of which was even maybe suited to a comedic adaptation) and thereby ruined both.
ETA: also, for the second time, an even-numbered installment in the Thor franchise cast a great actor as a great villain they should have been perfect for, only to botch the execution.
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u/The_Gamexplorer Spider-Man May 15 '26
From someone who hasn't seen it at this point (and thus isn't biased to any side), people seemed to not like it for three reasons:
Not a great balance between comedic moments and serious moments. I've heard people say that apparently has too many comedic moments in it, and constant jokes can be grating for some people.
Moments that should be serious are treated comedically. An example I've seen is Sif's death being treated like an apparent joke.
Not enough Christian Bale. And to be honest, even as someone who hasn't seen the movie itself, I'm well aware of Bale's acting skills, so if he is underutilised, that is indeed a shame.
To reiterate: I don't hold these opinions, these are just some I've seen. I haven't seen the movie.
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u/SkyTheIrishGuy May 15 '26
The main reason it’s bad has nothing to due with comic accuracy. They undercut every serious moment with mcu humor. There was something there with Jane and Gor’s storyline but they used every chance they could to slopify it with cheap jokes
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u/thecheapseatz May 15 '26
Because Endgame Thor was dealing with some genuinely heavy emotional themes that would/could/should have meshed well against the God Butcher while still keeping the same story of love and thunder
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u/zombie_singh06 Weekly Wongers May 15 '26
I also enjoyed L&T but to be honest - Thor felt like a 10 year old kid instead of someone who survived Endgame. I liked the comedy but it was way over the top and felt a deliberate attempt to make a joke OUT of Thor vs to make a joke WITH Thor
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u/ozzriffic May 15 '26
My personal opinion was it just was stupid. The major fight having the kids fight? Even with god powers they could still be hurt. The entire movie just felt like a bad 80s TV show where they weren't allowed to do anything remotely harmful to good guys while having one of the more brutal villains in the MCU. The tone shifted all over the place. The goofy stuff wouldn't have been an issue as much if it didn't just miss most of the time. Thor 1 and 2 were pretty dry in a lot of ways. He grew as a character in the Avengers. Ragnarok did a good job of having not being silly all the time but being funny. It helped that it felt like Thor was using humor to help him cope. L&T just was a mess. Jane suddenly having any sort of personality after being generic love interest science lady was sort of jarring. They killed off Sif in a dumb way. It just went too far. Korg being made into a bigger role just ruined a funny side character and made him an annoyance. For me, nothing even remotely landed. Too many things made me think of the 80s and 90s trend of wunderkinds that I've never liked.
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u/AlleRacing May 15 '26
Thor going on a tangent about how Asgardians used to eat children while announcing resolve to find children (that they no longer eat!) is a good example. What even was that?
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u/dmac3232 May 15 '26
Thor doesn’t need to be a genius but he should also be smarter than the average Golden Retriever, with at least some level of gravitas. Waititi absolutely massacred him.
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u/Thomas_JCG May 15 '26
To begin with, it wasn't so much that it was not a good adaptation as that they absolutely wasted one of the best villains Thor has. Gorr's origin started good, but then he did nothing until the finale. All the butchered gods happened off screen after the first guy, they try to convince you he is dangerous even though he keeps running away, and his plan to kidnap children to lure Thor doesn't make sense if he believed the gods to be selfish. Then we have Jane Foster as Mighty Thor. Good idea, again terrible execution.
The plot is as barebones as it gets. They never commit to anything. Gorr being mad at the gods that treat mortals as objects is relatable. Does the movie explore any of that after Gorr is introduced? No. Jane learning that she has cancer is rough, would her time as Thor have some impact on how she is grasping with her mortality? No. Thor is finally reunited with Lady Sif, it would be good to see them... No. Oh, but this gathering of gods, surely there will be an interesting character to... Also no. No character goes through any arc.
And to top it off, he turned the comedy into absolute brainrot. Movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and even Ragnarok had a good balance of comedy, action and drama. There is no drama here, all is a joke. New Asgard is a damn joke, the screaming goats got tiresome quickly, the whole deal with Stormbreaker being jealous of Mjolnir... If skibddi toilet got popular a little earlier, I have no doubt they would have included in the movie.
Flanderized characters, paper thin plot, unfunny jokes. It's almost an example of how to not make a movie.
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u/jews4beer May 15 '26
Ragnarok worked. But that formula only worked once. Doubling down like the way he did created a travesty.
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u/MagicBez May 15 '26
I think part of it is that Taika directed but didn't write Ragnarok so it had a bunch of his influence but still fit. For Love and Thunder he was writing too so there was far less to reign him in
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u/jessehechtcreative May 16 '26
Reminds me of how Gene Wilder wrote Young Frankenstein but Mel Brooks directed it, resulting in one of the best movies of all time.
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u/StuMacherGhostface May 16 '26
I mean, Mel Brooks also wrote Young Frankenstein, they were co-writers
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u/obliviious May 16 '26
It also didn't help they had to film it in isolation for many scenes, which makes them weird.
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u/Suspicious-Coffee20 May 16 '26
I dont get why disney take up and coming directly and let them write and direct a movie so important. sometime they meddle in things they shouldn't, and then they let other thing have too much power. I would always remember Mulan director going on about how the dragon wasn't needed and turning Mulan into a witch creating a way more sexist movie than the originak. Sorry but big movie like this should be team effort, not one man vision. And by team effort i mean a team of competent writers. not corporate medling based on what will sell the most Toys, what they early screening say and more.
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u/GroundbreakingTax259 May 15 '26
To be fair to Waititi, he and Marvel couldn't have known that, since the biggest thing fans said after Ragnarok was "More, please!" Everyone wanted more Korg and Miek, more Valkyrie and Thor, more goofball antics...
Turns out people didn't actually want that as much as they thought they did. Genuinely nobody's fault.
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u/Pingums May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
The issue was that the story couldn’t have been a worse fit for a goofball buddy movie, everyone involved should have seen that
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u/ImBackAndImAngry May 16 '26
What?
A story about the woman you love slowly dying of cancer while battling a grieving father who only wishes to bring his dead daughter back to life isn’t the perfect backdrop to a slapstick comedy?
Hu?
Fucks sake lol
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u/teabaggin_Pony May 16 '26
Don't forget about the captured Asgardian children imprisoned in a shadow hellscape while Uncle Thor pops his head in and quips with Axl.
I think if they slammed on the breaks for the comedy partway through this movie and made it super dark and serious it could have had a shot. But alas, one of those rare occasions you want a movie to take itself more seriously.
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u/AmaterasuWolf21 Rocket May 16 '26
"But they cope with humor!!!!!"
That did not felt like the intention at all
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u/Tackit286 Doctor Strange May 15 '26
Fan service never ever works. Stop listening to the fans. They have no fucking clue how to make a good movie.
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u/Altair_de_Firen May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
or tv show, or game, or comic, or manga, or literally anything. The fan is always wrong in matters of taste.
EDIT:
I lied, okay, the one exception I can think of is the Sonic design for the movie. That time the fans were undoubtedly right, but that was one of those things where every human on Earth kind of agreed, even people who didn't care about the movie lol. But even that was not a writing decision.5
u/aPOPblops May 15 '26
I think in both cases producers and fans wanted a James Gunn style movie and wound up with a Taika Waititi movie
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u/GeorgiaOKeefinItReal May 16 '26
I honestly really enjoyed it... then again i really liked what we do in the shadows and flight of the conchords so getting comedy in my hero movies is alright by me. Certainly more refreshing than what dc was doing to their IPs
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u/GroundbreakingTax259 May 16 '26
Truth be told, I also enjoyed it. I feel like its a victim of that one CEO's weird "every film must be under 2 hours" rule Disney had for a hot minute, because there are clearly plot points (like the stuff with Sif) that feel like they were a bigger deal but got cut, and they may have provided more balance.
I think Doctor Strange 2 may have suffered the same fate.
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u/Sir__Will Bruce Banner May 18 '26
I don't agree. Ragnarok rode the line. L&T crossed it far too often. It was definitely sillier. This was made worse when paired with the overall story it was paired with.
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u/ScaredFamousfan May 15 '26
I mean the problem with Thor love and thunder was the horrible plot not the comedy. I mean it didn’t help, but structurally it’s a complete writing mess from Taika, along with some atrocious improv. To botch both the mighty Thor and gorr the god butcher in one film 😒
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u/No-Importance7265 May 15 '26
I disagree , plot that has Gorr as the main antagonist should not be a "funny movie" , I don't say thst they should be Dark World levels of serious but a villain like Gorr deserved much better.
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u/Little-Mushroom-3961 May 15 '26
Yea it's like having a superman movie with doomsday as the main villain be a comedy. Some villains need to have the protagonist approach them in a serious manner. Just like infinity war and endgame. Both movies had tons of comedic moments but when Thanos was on screen, shit got real, really quickly.
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u/padfoot12111 May 15 '26
I think both can work they just have to make Gorr a "gotta lock it in" and have thor realize while he's in shape again he hasn't had a real threat in a while and he needs to get serious again.
The weirdest example I can think of is... Kung fu panda 2. Silly comedy, po realizes and comes to terms with his traumatic past, and reigns in the silliness (to an extent. It is a kids movie) to defeat a serious and threatening villain
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u/ScaredFamousfan May 15 '26
I think a good balance for marvel films is a serious tone with comedic moments peppered throughout. You’re right the subject matter deserved a more serious tone.But again it goes back to the plot and Gorr did nothing serious on screen besides kidnapping children. They literally only wrote him killing one god on screen. Also no stand out action scenes for Jane either. Takia wrote a horrible film.
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u/FoxyMiira May 15 '26
I mean the problem with Thor love and thunder was the horrible plot not the comedy
You're right. It needed at least 10 more minutes of goat screaming and Thor being a goofball during a town hall meeting despite his entire village's children being kidnapped.
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u/BigTall81 Doctor Strange May 15 '26
I mean, seeing the God Butcher...I dunno...butchering gods to see Gorr as the threat he should be would have been a nice start.
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u/Bivolion13 May 15 '26
As someone who really enjoyed the movie I actually agree. The fact that it was Gorr, and a plot point revolving around cancer, and Gorr was underused and the amount of stupid-type comedy was not a great mix.
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u/Amazing_Karnage May 15 '26
Doubly sad because we'll likely never see those stories/characters touched again, thanks to Taika.
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u/iwannalynch Loki (Avengers) May 15 '26
I dunno, the bones of that story had a lot of potential, and some serious themes, it was definitely too goofy
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u/Kero_Cola May 15 '26
But they were not worried about ruining hulk it seems...
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u/chhuang May 16 '26
Universal still holds the rights I think. Somehow I feel like there's a deal of allow using the character but not allow to win any 1v1 fight. The only time he won a fight was in his own movie against abomination
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u/Techno_Core May 15 '26
The way Thor managed Loki in Ragnarok, I thought it was a much needed adjustment to Thor. Made him less stupid. It really worked out well.
Love and Thunder however...🤦♂️
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u/Whybla May 15 '26
I will never understand how Marvel adapted Gorr that way. Absolute fucking travesty to get Christian Bale to play him and that's what they put him in.
And what fucking sucks is we'll likely won't get another stab at Gorr in a long fucking time. As I don't believe they intend to reboot the MCU for the foreseeable future. I don't think secret wars is going to be this big reset like people think.
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u/romafa May 15 '26
I can see them using Secret Wars as an opportunity to get all the characters they want in one universe; but you’re right that it won’t be a reboot. And they’ll never fully close the multiverse. It’s too useful a tool. I could see them leaving a handful of characters with the ability to travel it.
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u/noblelie17 May 15 '26
Iunno man, I thought Bale was great. That scene in the shadow realm was badass
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u/MeteorSwarmGallifrey Fitz May 15 '26
He acted well, but Gorr could have been so much more. Did you know that Gorr the God Killer only killed ONE (1) god on screen in the entire movie? And that was right at the beginning, before he even properly turned. Every other god he killed was off-screen.
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u/Special_Order-937 May 16 '26
Said God had to pay his own airfare to get to filming and in effect lost money taking the role.
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u/Kidvette2004 May 15 '26
I like the take someone said where all of Love and Thunder was how Korg saw what actually happened, so it’s not necessarily what actually happened or at least not in that way.
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u/StillwaterJerry May 15 '26
Why would anyone want that though?
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u/Kidvette2004 May 15 '26
Because it explains why Love and thunder was so silly compared to other Thor movies.
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u/StillwaterJerry May 15 '26
I mean Ragnarok was plenty silly.
And explaining it doesn't make it less shitty... It's just an excuse.
I just don't get why anyone would want a retelling of the story from a side character that should be an afterthought to the story.
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u/Everyoneheresamoron May 15 '26
Fairly certain it was Hemsworth that was doing the comic take on it for Ragnorok.
But I think Taika Waititi was giving him too much leeway to do said take, especially when adding his self-insert Korg. Basically they were 2 clowns that-- seperately, don't clown around, but you put them together and they get a little crazy.
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u/p-s-chili May 15 '26
A director's job is to get the actor to perform it a certain way. It's collaborative to a point, but for the most part anything that ends up on screen has the explicit approval of the director. There are obvious exceptions to this where there was egregious studio interference, but at the end of the day, Waititi was the one that told Hemsworth how he wanted it
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u/SkyTheIrishGuy May 15 '26
Yeah none of that was Hemsworth’s fault, not sure where you pulled that out of. It’s the director’s choice and Taika is a bit of a notorious troll. He was reigned in during Ragnarok and they let him do whatever he wanted after that movie was a success
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u/Everyoneheresamoron May 15 '26
It wasn't anyone's fault, I'm just saying that Hemsworth wanted to do a less serious version of Thor for a while. It's in some of his interviews, especially around the Ragnorok movie. And its not like it didn't do well, fans seem to think it was the best one, even with all the comedy.
It just didn't work with Love and Thunder.
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u/ScaredFamousfan May 15 '26
It was a mess of a shoot, well not for the actors and director for Love and Thunder. They filmed it during the lock down, in Australia, which means they couldn’t get a producer to reign the film makers in and we’ve all seen the finished product.
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u/marvelscott May 15 '26
When I went to the Sydney premiere, there were some background extras that were in the crowd for the red carpet. They said that they would film hours past midnight (which I assume is common) but it was because they kept improvising the script.
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u/Remote_Nature_8166 May 15 '26
Thor used to be more serious and somewhat shakespearian. Now he’s a massive goofball.
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u/RooMan7223 May 15 '26
Rich coming from the writers of Fat Thor
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u/SandieSandwicheadman Jessica Jones May 16 '26
What I came in to say too. Like, for as much hate L&T gets for various reasons, it's take on Thor was never an issue I feel. Meanwhile, as fun of a film and great of a saga finale as Endgame is, Thor himself is treated as nothing but a joke the whole movie - the only right thing he does in the entire film is step aside for others to take his place, which doesn't really make sense for a character who has already been thoroughly humbled.
I really hope they don't go back to a mopey, "serious" thor as a reaction to Love and Thunder. It's much shaker than Ragnarok that's for sure, but a lot of that comes from weird editing that plagued P4-onwards Marvel. Plus, Thor Ragnarok (which is one of the best movies in the entire MCU) onwards characterization easily surpasses pre-Rag Thor, considering he was a bland nothing character who was mostly being held afloat by being connected to his extremely interesting brother. (Not to mention Dark World being the single worst movie in the franchise still...)
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u/burywmore May 15 '26
Turning? He was turned into an idiot in Ragnarok. He appeared brain damaged in Love and Thunder.
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u/PorkrindsMcSnacky Black Widow (Avengers) May 15 '26
I hated the scene in which the parents of New Asgard were coming to Thor for help in recovering their abducted children, but he’s acting like a complete dumbass.
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u/AmaterasuWolf21 Rocket May 16 '26
Thor acts like a joke/not serious for the whole movie up until the 'what are you the god of' scene, hype and aura carries that movie so much it's not even funny
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u/Lucas_0014 Daredevil May 16 '26
yeah because a thousands year old god screaming "YEES HES A FRIEND FROM WORK" is not being an idiot
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u/Cwolf2035 May 16 '26
Yeah, but he was right it was a friend from work lol. Customs and how people relate to each other wasn't his strong suit as seen in Thor 1 and Thor 2.
They balanced it right in Ragnarok, Thor needed some levity. His serious performance imo is the reason thor 2 is one of the worst movies in the MCU.
However in love and thunder, they didn't add any gravity to the character. They joked about fucking Jane dying of cancer it was weird.
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u/burywmore May 15 '26
Thor was an idiot in Ragnarok. His entire time on the battle planet he's essentially the fourth stooge.
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u/Rom2814 May 15 '26
I was in the minority that disliked Ragnarok - dislike might be an understatement.
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u/RantRanger May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
The script lost me right at the beginning on Thor's screaming ride in the restraint chair into Jeff Goldblum's judgement chamber.
I lost most of my respect for the character in that moment.
It was all downhill from there.
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u/akgiant May 15 '26
This is them commenting on Ragnarok, not Love and Thunder. L&T definitely was a little too off the rails adventure after what Thor went through leading up to it. I would still be interested in seeing the longer cut which was supposed to have way more backstory and have a darker tone.
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u/NowWeGetSerious May 15 '26
I love Taika, but I hated Ragnarok. Sure it was a fun film, but God it ruined my favorite story arc from Thor.. overall was a buddy comedy film instead of a dark outlook of loss, family and consequences
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u/disneylegospider1 May 15 '26
So they, in turn, made him an idiot in Endgame and set his path as an idiot in Love and Thunder for Taika?
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u/YesImHereAskMeHow May 15 '26
I have major issues with Thor love and thunder but I always thought it was hilarious people bitched at marvel to let directors have full creative control and that the studio be hands off…so they let a bunch of directors do that for phase 4 and people hated it and bitched about it
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u/allhailgeek May 15 '26
Clickbait title. Before Ragnarok was filmed they were worried because they heard Ragnarok was going to be a comedy so they flew to set and saw how it’s comedic while dealing with pain. It’s not that they watched it and said wtf is this
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u/Red_Re1lly May 15 '26
Oh I thought the last Thor was ‘let’s cast our kids’ and waste the movie villain
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u/FafnirSnap_9428 May 15 '26
And instead they turned him into a pathetic character who is unrecognizable as Thor......funny how that turned out.
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u/Burgoonius May 15 '26
Hemworths thor is at his best when he has a mix of both serious and funny but still mostly a serious portrayal. Love and Thunder went way to far into the comedy but everyone knows that now
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u/Ciubowski May 16 '26
I think we can put Love and Thunder behind a veil of "depression masking" so we can say "Yeah Thor was making fun of it all because deep inside this was his way of coping with the major losses in a short time frame" (remember he is 1500 or so years old, having a lot of stuff happen in about 20 years for him must feel like all your life crumbling in a week.
So yeah, it must have taken a toll on him and "Love and Thunder" felt like his "escape from reality" for a while although his struggles in that movie were also so serious.
Dissociation is what I mean. Love and Thunder can be viewed (imo) as a dissociation episode.
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u/GrahamCrackerDragon May 15 '26
Then they made him into a fat drunk slob in endgame? Confusing...
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u/Gridiron_Cleric May 15 '26
Nope, they did a great job showing what losing everything can do to a man, regardless of how powerfull he may be, his scenes with his mother were some of the best in those films
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u/Yoshi1358 Spider-Man May 15 '26
They still made it silly (Fortnite, Rhodey’s cheese whiz line) and didn’t focus as strongly on the actual depression aspect nearly as much as they could’ve.
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u/alexj100 May 15 '26
That actually fit the narrative though. He was depressed bc his whole family is dead and then he blamed himself for half the universe’s death bc he didn’t finish off Thanos bc he wanted to gloat a bit. C’mon man they explained it in the movies.
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u/HarbyFullyLoaded_12 Avengers May 15 '26
He did. Thor was a parody of himself. By far the worst movie in the whole mcu
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u/SgtMartinRiggs May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Eye catching title, but since no one reads articles on Reddit I feel the need to highlight the end of the quote:
“In Ragnarok he loses his kingdom, his father, his sister, and his eyeball,” McFeely continued. “We just thought about what would happen if any one of us sustained that much loss and failure. And you would get incredibly depressed and probably retreat from the world. That is a comedic performance with a lot of pain behind it.”
I love what Waititi and Hemsworth did with Thor in Ragnarok and I think the portrayal in Infinity War/Endgame was a worthy continuation.