As you'll already know from the trailers for Thor: Ragnarok, the destruction of Mjolnir was moved from a New York alleyway to a field in Norway. It's a big change and one that obviously occurred during reshoots but it's not the only alteration made; Odin - who was supposed to be portrayed as a hobo wandering the streets raving about the end of the world - no longer sets foot in the Big Apple.
In a new interview, director Taika Waititi elaborated on the change of scenery and why he felt it was necessary to change Hela's introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in such a major way.
"We wanted the scene to have more of an emotional resonance around Odin and the sons. We wanted it to be a very special moment between them, where Odin (Anthony Hopkins) acknowledges Loki (Tom Hiddleston) as his son, and the three of them [are] together, there in that moment. It’s the first time we’ve really seen them all together in the same room alone, connecting, and you just can’t f***ing do that in New York, you know? You can’t even do that in real life in New York, have an emotional connection in an alleyway, so that was a very distracting environment in the end.
"In the end we thought it’s actually better to give more weight to it, and give it the sort of time that it deserved, and give it the sort of quietness that it really deserved because everything up until then had been such a fast-paced journey. Thor was on Muspelheim, he gets up to Asgard, then suddenly they’re in New York, and [with] Doctor Strange, and then they’re in an alleyway. We just needed to chill out for a second, and have that moment, because the rest of the film basically just runs at a clip. The audiences get to relax and have some emotional connection to some of the characters. It was very important that we took it away from New York."
As for the decision to change what Odin has been up to since being banished by Loki at the end of Thor: The Dark World, it appears as if audiences at early test screenings simply didn't respond to him being an unhinged hobo in New York, hence why things had to be changed when reshoots took place.
"[Odin] was originally in New York, and people couldn’t understand why – rightly so. It just didn’t feel very authentic that Odin was wandering around New York, he’s one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and he’s wandering around New York, kind of lost. What we wanted to do, I guess, was to honour that he was a powerful king and he had taken himself to Norway, to the cliffs and was waiting this whole time, whereas before it seemed too and and too tragic that he was there, and dying in New York. I thought, what a pitiful end, you know?"
Waititi makes some good points here and while it's a shame we'll never get to see what appeared to be a very funny take on Odin, it might have ultimately been for the best. After all, there's more than enough humour in the movie as it is without making the former King of Asgard the butt of jokes too.
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