Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok has been praised as one of the greatest entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because unlike the previous Thor movies, it has an idiosyncratic artistic voice at the helm putting a personal authorial stamp on the work. This is the case with all the MCU’s best movies: James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, the Russo brothers’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Whereas the MCU’s worst entries, like Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World, play as generic superhero blockbusters that get the job done without going the extra mile to stand out, the best ones bring something wholly unique to the table.
With its zany Big Trouble in Little China-inspired revamp of the God of Thunder and its use of hilariously anticlimactic set pieces, it’s fair to say Thor: Ragnarok falls into this category. Just like Gunn and Coogler’s movies, Waititi’s personality can be seen all over Ragnarok. But the director’s next Thor solo movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, could be even more unique and offbeat than his Marvel debut.
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While Waititi managed to put his own personal stamp on Ragnarok, he came onto the project when the script was already late into development, so his contributions were limited. When he boarded the project, Marvel had envisioned Ragnarok as a darker movie than the previous Thor films. Waititi went in the complete opposite direction and made it much lighter and zanier than the last two movies and the result turned one of the most boring Avengers into one of the most beloved.
But despite all the creative freedom he was given, Waititi still had to operate within a story structure and collection of ideas that Marvel had already laid out from the beginning. Love and Thunder, on the other hand, was developed from scratch by Waititi – in conjunction with screenwriter Jennifer Kaytin Robinson – so it’ll be his movie in an even truer sense than Ragnarok was and probably showcase even more of his quirky, inimitable sensibility.
Marvel has yet to reveal any plot details about Love and Thunder, but there are some very exciting elements at play. The movie will reintroduce Jane Foster as she takes on the mantle of Thor, possibly even incorporating the cancer storyline from the comics; Valkyrie is searching for a queen to help her rule over New Asgard; Christian Bale will play Gorr the God Butcher; Russell Crowe will play Zeus; and the Guardians of the Galaxy will appear in supporting roles. All the ingredients are there for Love and Thunder to be even more deliriously entertaining than its predecessor.
This is one of several passing-the-torch narratives taking place in Phase Four of the MCU as the original six Avengers move on. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier just introduced Sam Wilson’s Captain America. The Black Widow movie will introduce Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova as Nat’s successor. The Hawkeye series will introduce Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop as Clint’s successor. But Love and Thunder has a unique angle in that its central Avenger is passing on his mantle to his ex-girlfriend. With Thor and Jane reconnecting and Valkyrie looking for a queen, Love and Thunder is poised to be a heartfelt romantic comedy wrapped in an intergalactic superhero spectacle.
Waititi is one of the most revered and fascinating voices in contemporary cinema. His movies are all inextricably tied by his use of dry humor to explore deeply human stories, but they’re also entirely distinct from one another. There’s nothing that connects a vampire mockumentary, a father-son adventure story, and a coming-of-age yarn starring an imaginary Hitler other than Waititi’s idiosyncratic sensibility.
It can be difficult to follow up blockbusters that felt like a breath of fresh air, because a sequel that provides more of the same will be inherently disappointing because it doesn’t pack the same surprise that the original did. This can be seen in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Dark Knight Rises, and indeed, Marvel’s own Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. But based on Waititi’s track record, Love and Thunder is in no such danger. Rather than rehashing what worked in Ragnarok, Waititi is surely crafting a whole new movie with its own refreshing style and themes.
Waititi is also one of the few indie directors to make the jump to mainstream blockbusters and actually use that clout to make the jump back to smaller original movies and get non-franchise-related movies made. Between Ragnarok and Love and Thunder, Waititi has carved out the time to direct not one, but two smaller movie projects: Jojo Rabbit, which was released to critical acclaim and an Oscar win for Waititi in 2019, and Next Goal Wins, an upcoming true-to-life sports comedy starring Michael Fassbender as an underdog soccer coach.
The filmmaker who just earned an Academy Award for writing himself as a dancing Hitler who eats unicorns has surely cooked up something totally new for the fourth Thor movie. After the wildly unexpected turn that Thor’s arc took following Avengers: Endgame’s five-year time jump, the sky is the limit in terms of creative risk-taking.
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