THOR: RAGNAROK Director Taika Waititi Explains Why Odin's Death Scene Was Changed In The Movie

THOR: RAGNAROK Director Taika Waititi Explains Why Odin's Death Scene Was Changed In The Movie

Set photos and trailers for Thor: Ragnarok revealed that Odin was meant to die at the hands of Hela in New York City, and director Taika Waititi has now explained why the location was changed to Norway...

By Nighthawk01 - Apr 10, 2020 04:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Thor: Love and Thunder

In an earlier version of Thor: Ragnarok, Thor and Loki found Odin living as a homeless person in New York City. The God of Mischief had sent their father to the Big Apple at the end of Thor: The Dark World, and the All-Father was supposed to die at the hands of Hela in an alleyway.

During yesterday evening's live commentary, writer and director Taika Waititi explained that the decision to move that sequence from New York to Norway was, in large part, because that country needed to be set up as a potential location for New Asgard in Avengers: Endgame

"Here's the thing, alley ways aren't cool," Waititi said with a tongue in cheek tone. "Fields are cool. Ask anyone. We originally shot some of that stuff on the set of our stuff in New York. What we wanted to do was have them go down to Earth and they see Doctor Strange and stuff but it felt too convenient that he was suddenly just down the road in an alley."

Also everything, up to then, everything was so fast-paced and all over the place. We wanted to go somewhere peaceful and actually chill out with those characters and be with Odin while he imparts this wisdom and stuff and not have to hear stupid yellow cabs honking out the back."

Waititi added, "For various reasons we wanted to get them out of New York and set up this place for Avengers: Endgame. We wanted to seed this location earlier to set up Asgard's new home. Also, the test audiences felt bummed out about Odin dying next to trash and garbage in an alley."

The filmmaker's explanation adds up, and that deleted scene actually leaked online not too long ago. It was pretty cool, but possibly not the fitting ending Anthony Hopkins deserved. As Waititi indicates, that Norway setting also went some way towards setting the stage for the God of Thunder to establish New Asgard there, a nice pay off for the character's story arc in the MCU. 

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KWilly
KWilly - 4/10/2020, 5:05 AM
Off topic, but plz cast this woman as the new Mera.

https://comicbook.com/marvel/2020/04/10/daredevil-star-deborah-ann-woll-struggling-lack-acting-work-since-marvel-role/

She could nail it. Can't be any worse than Heard, smh.
Kumkani
Kumkani - 4/10/2020, 5:11 AM
@KWilly - She's already a better actress than Amber Heard anyway.
Unites
Unites - 4/10/2020, 5:13 AM
@KWilly - I support this. Actually, some of her scenes in DD Season 3 really had me thinking 'Wow, she is really, really good'.
KWilly
KWilly - 4/10/2020, 5:19 AM
@Unites - Me calling WB as her faux agent...

billnye69
billnye69 - 4/10/2020, 5:30 AM
I think they just wanted to rip off Gladiator.
Origame
Origame - 4/10/2020, 6:06 AM
This is old news. We knew about this before the movie was released.
BigPhilbowski
BigPhilbowski - 4/10/2020, 6:23 AM
Just rewatched the first Thor yesterday. Only just realised that the battle with the frost giants at the beginning is also the same place as where Red Skull finds the tesseract and where new Asgard is.
L0RDbuckethead
L0RDbuckethead - 4/10/2020, 1:47 PM
@BigPhilbowski - Nice catch!
FleischerSupes
FleischerSupes - 4/10/2020, 6:39 AM
One of the coolest parts of the Thor movies. Hated to see him written out of it, and although I loved the scene with Frigga in Endgame, I would have loved for Odin to return.

MasterMix
MasterMix - 4/10/2020, 6:58 AM
Ragnarok could have so much sillier. I glad ideas like this were changed.
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 4/10/2020, 8:40 AM
"Also, the test audiences felt bummed out about Odin dying next to trash and garbage in an alley."

This can't be overstated, I think. If Comicbook Odin spent his final years dazed in an alley, I'd be totally fine with it, but MCU Odin has Hopkins totally nailing the benevolent father speeches so it's easy to forget how much of a dick he really is. Seeing that he'd spent his twilight years location scouting for New Asgard in seersucker tweed isn't too tragic an end for him.
NinnesMBC
NinnesMBC - 4/10/2020, 9:53 AM
His reasoning for choosing Norway makes sense, but personally for me the way Odin passed away there was also a little bland. I think in general Marvel never really used Hopkins to his best potential when doing Odin.

But at least his “No, you're stronger” to Thor made up for good final words.
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