Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder may have tipped the scales for Marvel fans who thought it leaned too far into comedy, but the director doesn’t seem to have any hard feelings about it.
During press for the Sundance premiere of Fing!, which is unfortunately a David Walliams adaptation co-written by and co-starring Walliams, Waititi was on hand to chat about Star Wars and Marvel, describing his work on the franchise as “for the greater good”.
“Thor was around before me,” Waititi said (via Variety). “The stuff that Chris and I did and how we shaped him into that new version… that was for the greater good of the franchise as a whole. I can’t wait to see these Avengers movies. I was just watching Infinity War and Endgame two weeks ago. They’re so good. I’m good friends with the Russos and will love to see what they’re doing.”
Like the sport at the heart of his 2023 movie Next Goal Wins, Waititi’s Marvel experience ultimately seemed to be a game of two halves. After the release of Thor: Ragnarok, the cheeky Kiwi was riding high as franchise fans responded well to his more comedic take on the God of Thunder, but a follow-up movie that saw the character bickering with his old hammer, being stripped naked in front of Zeus, and coping with a midlife crisis fared less well with critics and fans alike, although the movie made a profit at the box office (personally, I enjoyed Love and Thunder, but appreciate I’m in the minority).
