2017’s Thor: Ragnarok was a (lightning) bolt from the blue for the MCU as it totally revitalized Chris Hemsworth’s Asgardian Avenger and his franchise and proved that the character, who had arguably grown stale, had a lot more gas in the tank. Five years later, Thor: Love and Thunder has made history as the first time a Marvel hero got a fourth solo movie to their name. But finding enough fresh material for this groundbreaking adventure turned out to be a challenge for director Taika Waititi.
The Jojo Rabbit filmmaker has admitted to IndieWire that Love and Thunder was probably harder to make than Ragnarok as he threw all his ideas into his first Marvel outing, thinking it would be the one shot he got at making a Thor film, so he had to dig deep to come up with a second satisfying character arc for the God of Thunder to go on. Waititi explained:
“It still feels like survival. In some ways it was harder on this one because I put everything into Ragnarok, thinking that Marvel only makes three films per superhero so there wouldn’t be another one. Then they instantly asked us to do another one. That’s when I had to come up with all these new ideas to try and make something as good if not better than the last one. That was harder because it’s like a second novel. Trying to figure out what to do with this character that feels new, satisfies the fans, but also gives Chris [Hemsworth] something interesting to do with the character.”
As we all know by now, the new angle he came up with was to bring back Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, this time as the Mighty Thor, to throw Thor Odinson back together with his former flame. Likewise, he’s pitted the hero against his deadliest enemy yet in the form of Gorr the God Butcher, as brought to life by Batman himself, Christian Bale. Not to mention surrounding Thor with a bunch of other gods, including Russell Crowe’s Zeus.
Unfortunately, despite all this going for it, the extra challenge of Love and Thunder might’ve contributed to a slight downturn in quality from Ragnarok, as early reviews haven’t been all that kind. As things stand, the flick’s Rotten Tomatoes score is hewing dangerously close to the infamous stinker that is The Dark World. But maybe this will be a case like Eternals where the fans love it even if the critics don’t. It might have been an uphill battle, but Waititi clearly gave the project his all.