Christopher Eccleston hasn’t had a lot of nice things to say in the past about his experience working on 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. In an interview last year with The Guardian, for instance, the Malekith actor went as far as to joke that filming the God of Thunder’s second solo outing made him want to put a gun in his mouth. But during a recent panel at New York Comic Con, the star suggested that he still isn’t completely closed off to the idea of returning to the Marvel franchise.
Naturally, Eccleston still managed to get in a few more jabs at his sole outing in the MCU, characterizing his experience on set as tedious and uncomfortable:
“I was in make-up for six, seven hours every day – they didn’t tell me that up front, so I wasn’t pleased about that. There was a lack of humor in the film, I felt… so shall we move on?”
After stopping himself mid-rant, the actor acknowledged that The Dark World still has its fans out there that he doesn’t want to upset:
“I understand that some people love that particular film, and some of you actually like Malekith the naughty elf, so that’s only my experience within it. But I know that people love the film and I accept that and I’m careful about it. I’m so diplomatic these days!”
Nonetheless, Eccleston had a far more favorable take on the subsequent Thor: Ragnarok, which he described as “brilliantly written,” before claiming that he’d return for another film so long as the writers of the 2017 flick also came back:
“If it was the guy[s] who wrote the third… I’ll do that.”
While Thor: Ragnarok was co-written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher L. Yost, the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder is reportedly being penned by Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.
It remains to be seen if the Jojo Rabbit helmsman has any interest in winning Eccleston back to the franchise, but seeing how Ragnarok is widely credited with reinventing Thor as a more endearing and entertaining character, it would be interesting to see what Waititi could do with the less-than-beloved villain of Thor: The Dark World.
Either way, Waititi has his hands full enough orchestrating a separate comeback for one Jane Foster, who’s set to return when Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters on November 5th, 2021.