Thor: Love and Thunder Director Taika Waititi Reveals Filming Is Almost Finished on the "Best Marvel Film Ever"

Thor: Love and Thunder is rock-and-rolling towards the finish line, and writer-director Taika Waititi says the Thor fourquel might be the "best Marvel film ever." The Thor: Ragnarok filmmaker, who also plays the fan-favorite Korg, returns alongside Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie in the followup to Avengers: Endgame. Filming on Love and Thunder has been underway since late January in Hemsworth's native Australia, where the Marvel Studios production has utilized Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft virtual production technology used by Waititi and other filmmakers during the making of Disney's live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

"[Filming is going] great. We've got four weeks left, I can see light at the end of the tunnel," Waititi told Weekend Today (via The Sun). "It might be the best Marvel film ever!"

On reuniting with Hemsworth, whose Asgardian Avenger took a more humorous tone in Ragnarok, Waititi said, "He is a funny guy, he's a good friend and he's also someone that you just want to hang out with all the time. And I think that's all you really want from a superhero or a main character in your movie."

Returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, who last appeared in 2013's Thor: The Dark World before reprising her role in 2019's Endgame, as well as Jaimie Alexander as Sif and Jeff Goldblum as Ragnarok's cosmic Grandmaster. The cast of Guardians of the Galaxy — Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon — also return alongside Ragnarok cameo actors Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and Luke Hemsworth.

Waititi also directs MCU newcomers Christian Bale (The Dark Knight trilogy) as Gorr the God Butcher and Russell Crowe (Man of Steel) as Zeus. Recent set photos revealed a big-name actress will cameo as an Asgardian actor playing Hela, Thor's half-sister played by Cate Blanchett in Ragnarok.

"The next Thor film I'm doing, basically, we're sort of launching ourselves again on this adventure film, really. That was the thing really that I loved about doing Ragnarok, it felt like we were just putting Thor on a really cool adventure," Waititi told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. "There's always like new things to see and do, and this one, I think we're gonna double down a lot on that and have it bigger, bolder, and brighter. There's just gonna be some really crazy stuff in the film."

Marvel Studios releases Thor: Love and Thunder only in theaters on May 6, 2022.