Thor: Love and Thunder Cut a Kate Bush Song After Stranger Things 4 Released

The fourth season of Stranger Things has been a big hit with fans, and it’s also caused a resurgence for some musical artists. Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” shot up the music charts thanks to Stranger Things and earned the musician millions in royalties. The season also featured an epic Metallica moment, and the band has shut down fans for trying to gatekeep newcomers to their music. Turns out, Thor: Love and Thunder was also going to feature a song by Kate Bush, but it was removed after the success of Stranger Things. Director Taika Waititi recently spoke with NME about the Love and Thunder soundtrack and revealed he’s one of the people who are salty about a new generation discovering Bush.

“You mean how they ruined Kate Bush?” Waititi replied when asked if Thor: Love and Thunder could do for GNR what Stranger Things did for Bush. “I love that show, but as someone who feels a real ownership of Kate Bush music… I’m really annoyed! I’ve become one of those old arseholes who’s like: ‘These kids never listened to Kate Bush, they’ve heard one song on a TV show! They don’t know Kate Bush! I know Kate Bush!’” He added, “Before Stranger Things! Yeah, there were a bunch of Kate Bush songs I wanted to have in [Thor: Love and Thunder]. We were gonna have ‘This Woman’s Work’, which was gonna be great for [a scene with] Natalie Portman’s character. There was actually gonna be a lot of ABBA in the film as well…”

When it was pointed out that one ABBA song was featured, “Our Last Summer,” Waititi explained that he wanted to use more of the band’s music. “Yeah I got one in there, but I wanted more of an ABBA theme throughout. I thought it’d be funny if Thor’s favourite music was what he perceived to be a ‘Viking band’. He’d be like, ‘They’re a real tough Viking band called ABBA!’”

You can read a description for Thor: Love and Thunder here: “The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.”

Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters.