If Tony Stark had the first Iron Man, and Captain America had Winter Soldier as the solo movies that really defined the characters and put them on the MCU map as major players, for Thor that film was Ragnarok. Helmed by Taika Waititi, the threequel took the previously ultra self-serious hero and injected loads of wacky humor and heart into his franchise while taking audiences on a breathless cosmic adventure.
Of course, Waititi’s also directing the next chapter in the series, Thor: Love and Thunder, which he talked about in an interview recently where he teased the return of Korg in a major way, saying the following:
#ThorLoveAndThunder deets courtesy of the lovely @TaikaWaititi (@AshCrossan thank you for letting me borrow him for a carpet…) #thor #korg pic.twitter.com/3LILNatxt5
— Lauren Zima (@laurenzima) October 17, 2019
Korg was the rock character that Waititi himself played in Ragnarok, who quickly became a fan favorite thanks to his self-aware jokes and ultra-polite, matter-of-fact demeanor in the face of being a rock monster trapped on a foreign planet while being forced to fight for his life every day. He did eventually team up with Thor to beat Hela and rescue the Asgardians, though, and was also seen again in Avengers: Endgame.
Clearly, the studio recognizes that they have an entertaining new character on their hands that audiences would love to see more of and it’ll be interesting to find out what he gets up to in Thor: Love and Thunder, which as the director says above, will be bigger and crazier than the previous installment and have Korg once again teaming up with Chris Hemsworth’s titular hero.
The film is due in theaters on November 5th, 2021, so with any luck, the new year should bring us more information on what kind of wild adventure Waititi has planned for us this time.