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Thor: Ragnarok is now playing in select territories around the world and opens in North America next weekend. In the run-up to the Marvel film’s release, I got to sit down with director Taika Waititi for an exclusive video interview. If you remember at Comic-Con this year, he told me Thor: Ragnarok was going to be around 100 minutes but the actual runtime is over two hours. In our more recent conversation, he explains why the length of the film changed, if they ever considered using a Queen song, how he made all the department heads watch Flash Gordon before filming, getting to use Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” deleted scenes, and more.
As I’m sure you all know by now, the Thor sequel finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) stripped of his hammer by Hela (Cate Blanchett), who escapes from her Asgardian prison and lays waste to the city. Banished to a foreign planet, Thor teams up with Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and some new and old friends to take on Hela and protect the universe once and for all. The film also stars Tom Hiddleston, Karl Urban, Tessa Thompson, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Rachel House, Tadanobu Asano, Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Clancy Brown, and Ray Stevenson.
I absolutely loved this movie. It’s probably the funniest Marvel movie to date and it’s also a really fun ride that’s also loaded with some incredible action set pieces. I had a smile on my face beginning to end. I can’t recommend Waititi’s film enough.
Check out what Takia Waititi had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about and the official synopsis.
Takia Waititi:
- Did they ever consider putting a Queen song in the movie?
- How he made the heads of every department watch Flash Gordon before they started filming.
- How surprised he was that no one had used Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin before.
- How long was his first cut compared to the finished film? Says the first cut he was happy with was 2 hr 40 min.
- How at Comic-Con he told me the movie would be around 100 minutes. The film is now over 2 hr. What happened?
- What were the 30 minutes of deleted scenes?
Here’s the official synopsis for Thor: Ragnarok:
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- 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 theatres on November 3, 2017.
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