The Thor film franchise reached a new level with Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. Taika Waititi directed the film which was quickly recognized as one of the best Thor movies, if not one of the best MCU movies altogether. Now Waititi confirms he only directed the film for the money.
Waititi, who also directed the lesser-received sequel Thor: Love and Thunder, revealed as much on the “SmartLess” podcast. It seems as though it was the arrival of his second child that finally drove him to take on such a job.
Here’s what he had to share on that front:
“You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films,” Waititi said. “It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’”
He also emphasized how little he liked Thor comics as a kid:
“And ‘Thor,’ let’s face it — it was probably the least popular franchise,” he continued. “I never read ‘Thor’ comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like ‘Ugh.’ And then I did some research on it, and I read one ‘Thor’ comic or 18 pages, or however long they are. I was still baffled by this character.”
Waititi added the following response when asked if he thought Marvel executives were scared to hire him:
“I think there was no place left for them to go with that. I thought, ‘Well, they’ve called me in, this is really the bottom of the barrel.”
Despite his lack of interest for the character, his work on Thor: Ragnarok certainly rejuvenated Chris Hemsworth‘s role in the franchise. And while Thor: Love and Thunder didn’t reach its level of critical success, there are still plenty of possibilities for Thor’s story to continue. Even if Waititi won’t be involved.
“I know that I won’t be involved,” he said regarding a fifth film. “I’m going to concentrate on these other films that I’ve signed on for … But I love Marvel, I love working with them. I love Chris.”
“I would never feel like they are cheating on me,” Waititi added. He wants to make it clear that he’s completely okay with Marvel Studios hiring another writer/director for the job. “We’re in an open relationship, and it’s like if they want to see other people, I’m happy for that. I’d still get back into bed with them one day.”
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we have them. For now, fans shouldn’t expect Taika Waititi to come back to the Thor franchise.