Thor: Ragnarok Director Says More Than Half Of The Film Was Improvised

With a slew of trailers and promotional material already released, fans are getting pretty hyped up for November’s Thor: Ragnarok. And apparently, the film is already defying expectations of Marvel Studios films – because much of its dialogue was improvised.

Taika Waititi, who is helming the film, recently told MTV News about his creative process on the film. According to the director, that involved a lot of ad-libbed dialogue, culminating in about 80% of the film being improvised.

“My style of working is,” Waititi explained during San Diego Comic-Con, “I’ll often be behind the camera, or right next to the camera yelling words at people. Like, ‘Say this, say this! Say it this way!’”

Waititi revealed that the film’s star-studded cast didn’t intimidate him from following his usual technique.

“I’ll straight-up give Anthony Hopkins [who plays Odin in the film] a line reading. I don’t care.”

Judging by the response to Ragnarok’s early footage, that technique appears to have paid off. Nevertheless, some of Marvel’s more regular players were reportedly nervous about the film’s level of experimentation.

“Mark Ruffalo would be finished shooting for the day,” Waititi revealed. “And he’d come up to me and he’d be like, ‘Why have we not been fired yet? We are doing the most insane stuff in this film, so where’s the phone call?’”

In Marvel Studios‘ Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok – the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization – at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first, he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger – the Incredible Hulk!

Thor: Ragnarok is directed by Taika Waititi with a screenplay by Eric Pearson. The film stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hiddleston reprising his role as Loki. They are joined by Cate Blanchett (Hela), Idris Elba (Heimdall), Jeff Goldblum (Grandmaster), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Karl Urban (Skurge), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Sam Neill, Ray Stevenson (Volstagg), Tadanobu Asano (Hogun), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Stephen Strange).

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming are in theaters now, followed by Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017. After that Black Panther debuts on February 16, 2018, while Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018. Ant-Man and the Wasp is slated for July 6, 2018, followed by Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.

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