Taika Waititi, director to odd-ball comedies such as What We Do in the Shadows and this year’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, has likely been the most interesting choice for director within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Kiwi filmmaker seems to be using this fact to its utmost advantage, pulling for full creative control on Thor‘s third installment and making the film unlike anything Marvel fans have seen from its first two phases.
Waititi took to Reddit this weekend to answer fan questions in an “Ask Me Anything” forum during which he revealed how and to what extent his stylistic and creative stamp will be infused into the film. Some reddit users noticed the new retro logo (shown above) and asked Waititi if fans can expect the new film to have an “80s vibe”, to which he replied “You can. And more.” He also attributed the logo to “70s/80s sci-fi fantasy art”, saying that the film will have a similar feel.
Aside from Marvel having their hand in all of the comic lore, Waititi was given reign to the story, character, and tone of the film. For his script, he told fans that he worked on developing Thor’s quiet, silent type pathos to match Loki’s vibrantly dramatic personality, saying “Thor is awesome now.” He also says working on TR is “just like how I make my other films except way bigger.” Building on his particular style of framing and blocking seen in Wilderpeople (what one fan called Wes Anderson-esque), Waititi revealed that Ragnarok would see “a lot of Kubrick coming through”.
He took several opportunities to stress that this Thor will be “crazy”, as well as more “adventurous” and the “most ‘out there'” in comparison to other films in the MCU, let alone the other two Thor movies. According to Waititi, he and the creative team “didn’t bother trying” to connect his film stylistically to the rest of the Marvel tentpole, but is making this film truly their own.
One element that Waititi did take under careful consideration when looking at the MCU’s previous films was Thor: Ragnarok‘s score. One fan referenced a video essay that criticized the MCU for not having thematic continuity within the scoring of its different films. Being quite aware of the discussion, Waititi assured that “It was important to me that we got someone who has a very unique flavour for this (Mark Mothersbaugh). Our film is crazy so we needed someone to help compliment that.”
A few other fun tidbits revealed during the AMA include a hint that Doctor Strange may be referenced in TR, but he stayed mum on any further details. Also, when asked how he would write friend and collaborator Jemaine Clement into Thor, he opined that Clement “would have made a funny Thanos. But then Thanos wouldn’t have been scary.”
Thor: Ragnarok is currently in post-production and will hit theaters next year on November 3.
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