Taika Waititi, best known for directing Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder, began his career as an independent filmmaker in New Zealand. He rose to prominence in 2017 after his first project with Marvel Studios, Thor: Ragnarok, which became a success at the box office.
He also directed the latest MCU film featuring Thor, titled Thor: Love and Thunder. The film opened to mixed reviews from critics and performed poorly at the box office.
The latest episode of the Smartless Podcast featured Taika Waititi as their guest, where the director opened up about his real intentions behind taking up the MCU project.
Taika Waititi revealed he had no intentions of working on Thor: Ragnarok. But, still, he had just had a second child and thought it would be a great opportunity to earn more to support his children.
“You know what, I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor, and I’d just had a second child. I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’ They called and said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ And Thor – let’s face it, was probably [Marvel’s] least popular franchise. I never read Thor comics when I was a kid,” he added. I did some research on it, and I read one full comic, all 18 pages or however long they are. I was still baffled by this character.”
Taika Waititi Talks About His Real Intentions Behind Directing Ragnarok
Taika Waititi explained that he did not find Thor to be one of the most popular Marvel characters. However, he was in need of money at that point, so he decided to take up the project.
Back in the glory days of the MCU, any film with the tag Marvel was destined to break box office records. Therefore, it is understandable that Waititi considered Thor: Ragnarok an opportunity to earn more money.
Waititi has two daughters with his ex-wife, Te Kāinga o te Hinekāhu and Matewa Kiritapu. The former is 11 years old, while the latter is 7. Waititi divorced Wistanley in 2018, after which he married Rita Ora.
When Waititi signed Thor: Ragnarok, he had just had his second daughter. His elder daughter was also quite young then, so he needed more money to support his children.
Waititi further explained in the podcast that he interpreted Thor as “a billionaire who lives in space.” Waititi previously told People that he would not be interested in being a part of a potential fifth film about Thor.
As of now, the director is working on an adaptation of Klara and the Sun, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name. He also has an untitled Star Wars project in hand while working on the screenplay of another film titled The Incal.
It seems like Waititi is busy and booked, with no plans to return to the MCU for a while. Waititi joked about his relationship with Marvel Studios by calling it an “open relationship,” stating that he would not mind if they wanted to continue the Thor franchise with another director.
However, he also said that he would love to “get back into bed with them one day,” which means there’s still hope of him returning to the MCU sometime later.
Would you like to see Taika Waititi direct another Thor movie? Tell us in the comments below!
Source: Smartless
