Taika Waititi’s “Thor: Ragnarok” in 2017 was seen as a saviour of that franchise. Kenneth Branagh’s first film has its fans but is often dubbed one of the weaker Marvel origin films, whilst Alan Taylor’s “Thor: The Dark World” usually sits right at or near the bottom of MCU film rankings.
‘Ragnarok’ changed that with critics and audiences embracing Waititi’s more comedic and esoteric take, leading to it becoming the best film of its franchise with a gross of $855 million worldwide.
Marvel quickly hired Waititi back for a fourth film, “Thor: Love and Thunder” which opened last year. That film wasn’t so well received with mixed reviews and criticisms over its tone, script, jokes and visual effects quality.
As such, it’s not clear where the franchise goes from here, but in the upcoming “Thor: Love and Thunder The Official Movie Special” book releasing next month (via Screen Rant), Waititi says should a fifth Thor happen, he wants the God of Thunder to face an enemy more powerful than Cate Blanchett’s Hela from the third movie:
“What is left to do to him? It’s got to be something that feels like it’s carrying on with the evolution of the character, but still in a very fun way and still giving him things to come up against that feel like they’re building on the obstacles that he has to overcome. I don’t think we can have a villain that’s weaker than Hela. I feel like we need to step up from there and add a villain that’s somehow more formidable.”
Waititi also says he would want to see the introduction of more outlandish beasts and beings from various worlds:
“There’s a fun element to [Thor] and he has a casualness and a sort or swagger about him when he visits these worlds and encounters these aliens that I don’t think you’d get when it’s an earthling traveling through space exploring the universe.”
Previously star Chris Hemsworth has indicated he’s not sure when or if he’ll return as Thor, saying he doesn’t want to get to a point where the audience is “so exhausted that they roll their eyes when they see me come on the screen as that character.”
