New Thor: Love and Thunder Featurette Reveals a Taika Waititi Adventure

The brilliant mind of Taika Waititi is the focus of a new featurette for Thor: Love and Thunder. Waititi helped revolutionize the God of Thunder franchise when he stepped into the director’s chair for Thor: Ragnarok. Now he’s back to bring some love and thunder to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with Natalie Portman’s return as The Mighty Thor. Everyone from Portman to newcomer Christian Bale has nothing but good things to say about working with Taika Waititi, who is described as a “sort of genius child” by Thor star Chris Hemsworth. 

Laughs and good times can be found in the Thor: Love and Thunder featurette. Taika Waititi brought color and laughs to the Thor franchise, which is quite evident in some behind-the-scenes footage. “Love and Thunder. It’s just so loud and in your face and flamboyant,” Waititi says in the video. At one point several actors such as Hemsworth, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff are all caught screaming out loud, showing off their goofy sides during the shoot. 

“Taika’s a very bloody original filmmaker,” Bale says about Waititi. “He’s mind-blowingly talented.” Next, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige comes on the screen to discuss how Waititi wanted to come back to have fun and tell a good story, but also showcase the emotion that only he can provide a project. 

The mood slightly shifts, as actors discuss what makes their director one of the best in the business. “I think Taika is really good at reflecting the way life can be,” Portman says. “Dark and comedic all at once.” Waititi adds that he’s always wanted to make a crazy space adventure, but also emotional at the same time. Clips then move to highlight the relationship between Thor and Jane Foster, which started in the 2011 movie.

“Taika brought such a new energy, not to just the Marvel Universe, but to this franchise,” Tessa Thompson declares. 

The Thor: Love and Thunder director managed to prank James Gunn when it came to the space goats Gunn is stuck with in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. “We got space goats. I remember Taika was like, I won’t do his impression, but he just wanted to stick James with some goats,” Chris Pratt told Marvel on the Thor: Love and Thunder red carpet. “He was like, ‘I’ve rewritten the script, mate, and I decided to put some goats in there and see what he’s going to do with them.’ So James has to pick up where Taika left off and he stuck us with some space goats.”

Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theaters on July 8th.