Taika Waititi On THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Criticisms: "If You Want It To Be Like The Comics, Read The Comic"

Filmmaker Taika Waititi has confirmed that he struggled to find the right tone for Thor: Love and Thunder and shares a response to those who feel the movie wasn't comic-accurate enough. Check it out...

By JoshWilding - Sep 20, 2023 03:09 PM EST

Filed Under: Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor: Love and Thunder had all the makings of the best Marvel Studios movie ever. Heavily inspired by Jason Aaron's Thor run and featuring both The Mighty Thor and Gorr the God Butcher, the right ingredients were definitely there.

Among those was Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi. He'd successfully reinvented the God of Thunder in that 2017 blockbuster and fans were excited to see what came next. Unfortunately, the result was a movie which largely disappointed and definitely didn't do the source material justice.

Gorr largely underwhelmed and Jane Foster's story was heavily condensed and rushed.

Talking in a newly released Movie Special Book, Waititi acknowledges that it was "very difficult" to find the right tone. "It's an ongoing battle because I want my films to be entertaining," he says, "and I want a lot of humor in them - to poke fun not only at the idea of the Space Viking, but also to poke fun at humans. How we bumble our way through life on this planet."

"The comic run is very serious, and Jane's story is especially tense. And so to try to find humor around that stuff, as well as making it an emotional story, was always going to be difficult," the filmmaker continues. "And we struggled with that. We wrestled with it throughout the edit, right up until we finished the film."

"We did funny scenes about cancer, we did way more tragic scenes about having cancer. Some audiences really loved the humor part of it. Some audiences really wanted it to be just like the comics. But, you know, I always say, if you want it to be exactly like the comics read the comic. You've got to change things here and there to make it a film."

While there's truth to that, it's interesting to hear that Waititi and Marvel Studios struggled to find a movie that worked in post-production. It's not remotely surprising given how Thor: Love and Thunder - which clocked in at under 2 hours - turned out and the writer and director may well have benefitted from sticking closer to those comics. The finished product just didn't work and it's unclear whether Thor 4 will ever happen.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andy Park (@andyparkart)

The movie finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor.

Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Directed by Taika Waititi, the movie stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe, Jaimie Alexander, Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, and Sean Gunn among others.

Thor: Love and Thunder is now streaming on Disney+.

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Gives Love Her Own Thor-Inspired Superhero Costume

Recommended For You:

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Reveals Alternate Looks For TED LASSO Star Brett Goldstein As Hercules

DISCLAIMER: ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and... [MORE]

ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

191 Comments

1 2 3 4 5

SkyPop - 9/20/2023, 3:09 PM

That's exactly what I did after watching this trashfire.

Fogs - 9/20/2023, 4:31 PM

@SkyPop - hate to say Thor was worse than the cancer in this film.

California - 9/21/2023, 12:44 AM

@SkyPop - if Taika wants to make characters and everything else different than the comics, go make other movies NOT based on the comics!

MCULover - 9/21/2023, 1:16 AM

@California - @ allyoufools
You sound like crybabies. "OH, it's not my vision. I'm going to criticize without actually doing anything. "
How about you get your shit together and make " your" movie. And then we can critique it.

Juwon - 9/21/2023, 2:57 AM

@California - Exactly!!! Tired of these silly people ruining decades worth of lore and content. Go make a carry on movie or Mr bean!

Juwon - 9/21/2023, 2:59 AM

@MCULover - Lame... Movie sucked, his approach sucked, the movie made a loss and has fed into the slow decline of the superhero era. Bless your heart but guess what... comic book movie fans views matter. The customer is always right.

dragon316 - 9/21/2023, 9:59 AM

@California - he didn’t do black widow , she hulk , moon knight , there comedy

California - 9/21/2023, 3:22 PM

@MCULover - No, not really. Don't take characters and a universe and go so far outside the lore that the source material is unrecognizable. If he wants to do that, write and direct a whole other movie in a whole other universe where he can have his characters do whatever he wants them to do. The consumer wants the source material respected, that's all.

VictorAlonzo - 9/22/2023, 1:49 PM

@SkyPop - 🎯 His name should be forever removed from Comic adapted Movies indefinitely.

ObserverIO - 9/20/2023, 3:11 PM

Keep this man away from Akira.

DrReedRichards - 9/20/2023, 3:12 PM

@ObserverIO -

Fully agreed, but I still think he'd be great for One Piece. A hell of a lot closer to his sensibilities than Akira.

CaptainCheese - 9/20/2023, 3:12 PM

Say what you will but the man knows how to piss on his audience. F U Taika.

1 2 3 4 5

Please log in to post comments.

Don't have an account?
Please Register.

Taika Waititi On THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Criticisms: "If You Want It To Be Like The Comics, Read The Comic"

Filmmaker Taika Waititi has confirmed that he struggled to find the right tone for Thor: Love and Thunder and shares a response to those who feel the movie wasn't comic-accurate enough. Check it out...

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Gives Love Her Own Thor-Inspired Superhero Costume

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Reveals Alternate Looks For TED LASSO Star Brett Goldstein As Hercules

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Gives Love Her Own Thor-Inspired Superhero Costume

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Reveals Alternate Looks For TED LASSO Star Brett Goldstein As Hercules