If you thought 2023 was going to go any easier on Thor: Love and Thunder, then we regret to inform you that the most polarizing movie of the plenty-divisive Phase Four is refusing to go quietly into the night.
To be fair, last year did end with a bang after Taika Waititi’s cosmic caper was accused of war crimes, which is every bit as excessive and hyperbolic as it sounds, but the latest conspiracy theory swirling around Chris Hemsworth’s fourth standalone adventure has less to do with the director, and more to do with behind the scenes machinations.
It’s well known that Love and Thunder cut an awful lot of footage prior to its theatrical release, including entire roles for Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage, and Lena Headey, as well as more screentime for Christian Bale’s ultimately-undercooked villain Gorr the God Butcher.
Coming in at a breakneck 119 minutes including credits, Redditors have been wondering if the decision to trim the film to under two hours was made at a level above Waititi’s pay grade by either Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, or former Disney CEO Bob Chapek. As things stand, the consensus is leaning into the negative, but it’s not as if we haven’t been here before.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was accused of the very same thing after coming in at 126 minutes, and it can’t be denied that both box office hits stand out amongst the pack as rare comic book adaptations that could have actually benefited from being a little longer.
Waititi has admitted in the past that he doesn’t care for long films, and he hates Director’s Cuts, so we’ll have to take Love and Thunder as it is – for better and worse.