[Interview] Taika Waititi strikes a chord in THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

While THOR: RAGNAROCK captured a totally righteous and radical heavy metal aesthetic, Taika Waititi’s follow-up, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER embraces this concept further. The film is centered on Thor (Chris Hemsworth) learning that his ex-girlfriend Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is now Thor as well, helping to save the galaxy from Gorr The God Butcher (Christian Bale) and his nefarious plans.

Guns N’ Roses features prominently in the film, not only represented in 4 songs on the soundtrack (a truncated greatest hits compilation), but also paying tribute to the band in the production design (a poster hangs on a teen’s wall) and naming a featured character after their lead singer, Axl Rose. While Waititi joked that it was always his goal to max out his budget on the music selection, he added seriously,

“The whole aesthetic around the film was always we wanted it to be this bombastic, loud, colorful palette, which kind of reflected, like, spray painted panel vans in the eighties and rock album covers. And, even the title treatment for the film, it’s the kind of thing I would’ve drawn on my school book in class when I wasn’t listening.”

He continues,

“Guns N’ Roses was one of my all-time favorite bands and to be able to us that stuff to reflect the sort of crazy adventure that we’re presenting visually was another one of my dreams that came true.”

Similar to RAGNAROK, comedy plays a big part in the narrative. In LOVE AND THUNDER, one of the long-running gags involves Thor’s hammers having human personalities and a contentious rivalry. Hemsworth loved developing this on the fly.

“That was kinda one of the funnest things we got to do. Look, it’s hard to see the ex-girlfriend turns up dressed as him. That’s a shock. And, all of a sudden, the weapon that he held so dear for so many years, now belongs to someone else. And he has Stormbreaker who starts to sense a little jealously there. That kind of evolved through the film. I don’t think it was in the original script, but it was fun.”

Waititi is quick to point out the reason why Stormbreaker has big feelings.

“I don’t know if this is the way anyone else thought about it, but you gotta remember Stormbreaker’s made of Groot’s arm – the handle is. And so Groot was like a teenager when he did that. We felt like Stormbreaker was a young wif and had only just been born about five or six years ago. It had to feel a little bit like an adolescent and it was like it was going through changes. And yeah, it was having mood swings.”

Waititi is known for his balance of comedy and tragedy – and that’s evidenced also in this film, on an epic scale Marvel is known for. Tessa Thompson, who returns as King Valkyrie says,

“That’s what’s so fun about these movies, and this on in particular is kind of holding that space between sort of the ridiculousness and the fun and the pathos. That’s something that Taika has always done really, really well in his films. And in this one especially, I feel like he really was excited to lean in to the emotion in a way that felt really rich for us. And I think really different than what we’ve seen particularly with themes of like love and relationships in this one. It just felt really exciting.”

Waititi elucidates about his delicate process.

“A lot of it is found in post. Like on set we try and do as much as possible, but it’s just harvesting moments and then taking it back to the kitchen and trying to figure out what the actual dish is. We’ve got a plan of making a certain dish, and it could be very different by the time we’ve finished cooking it. A lot of times, testing the film and seeing what audiences respond to, and sometimes you gotta get rid of jokes or get rid of moments, and other moments. It’s just a balancing act. That’s why it takes a year to finish these films.”

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is now playing.