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Over the last few years, Taika Waititi has proven himself one of the most exciting filmmakers in the field. Be it his hilarious vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, his odd-couple adventure Hunt for the Wilderpeople, or his first foray into blockbuster filmmaking with Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi's films have a throughline of unmistakable personality and good-natured humor. So, as you could probably guess, he's a pretty fun fella to sit down with for an extended chat.
With Thor: Ragnarok now in theaters, we teamed up with the good folks at IMAX and Marvel for a screening and extended Q&A with Waititi, and it turned out to be pretty much as delightful and entertaining as you'd think. During the wide-ranging conversation, Waititi talked about how he landed the gig directing a Marvel movie, finding the right level of humor in the edit and the various versions of the film they tried before settling into the current cut, surviving an 85 day shoot, the unusual lighting rig they used to film Valkyrie's flashback, deleted scenes and what we might see on the Blu-ray, getting the rights to Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song', the joys of Jeff Goldblum's improv and on-camera presence, deciding on his after-credits scenes and much much more.
Waititi also took fan questions, told a killer anecdote about his internet acclaimed pineapple print ensemble (it's a two-piece, not a romper, thank you very much), gave some rather shrewd advice about film school in character as Korg (skip to about 47:35 for that bit, it's worth it,) and generally delivered his signature humorist stylings. Let's just say the video is punctuated with a lot more laughter than your usual Q&A.
You can watch the full Q&A in the video above and find the Thor: Ragnarok synopsis below.
In Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Ragnarok,” Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok—the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization—at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger—the Incredible Hulk! “Thor: Ragnarok” thunders into U.S. theaters on November 3, 2017.