Thor: The Dark World Co-Writers Respond to Its Poor Reputation

Thor: The Dark World co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who revisit the 2013 Thor sequel in Avengers: Endgame, aren’t fazed by the “flack” the film has seen and its status as the lowest-rated Marvel Cinematic Universe entry.

“No, it wasn’t important to address it, it’s just where one of the stones was,” McFeely told the Los Angeles Times when asked if addressing that reputation was important in Endgame, which sees Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) time travel to 2013 Asgard.

“That second act [of Endgame] is going back into the other movies and finding the stones. Other than a brief moment where it would’ve been with Benicio del Toro at his Collector’s Museum, it was in Asgard during the movie. And we’d already seen Benicio del Toro in [Infinity War].”

Added Markus, “We knew we wanted each journey that the heroes took to not just be a stone journey, but also to provide some emotional resolution. Thor’s turmoil was really [eased] by getting together with his mom. And that was a very poignant moment because she dies later that day, so we could both get the stone and seek the resolution that we needed for him.”

The Alan Taylor-directed Dark World holds a still-fresh 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest of any MCU film. Despite its less-than-mighty reception from critics, Thor’s sophomore outing wields a 76% “liked it” approval from audiences, tying the first Thor (76%) and topping Captain America: The First Avenger (74%), The Incredible Hulk (70%), and Iron Man 2 (71%).

Does the writing duo, who has since delivered two of the highest-earning films of all time in the back-to-back Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, take issue with fans’ complaints about Dark World?

“I think the bar is set high for Marvel,” Markus said. “We share a credit on that movie, we came in to help out, so it’s on our résumé. Listen, there are 22 movies. One’s going to be first and one’s going to be last. I think there’s plenty of delightful things in it.”

The Captain America and Avengers scribes share that credit with Christopher Yost (Thor: Ragnarok), Don Payne (Thor) and Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan).

Markus and McFeely are now taking a break from Marvel Studios after writing six Marvel films in eight years.

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