Thor Love and Thunder: Cut Characters and Runtime Might Have Been Because of Marvel’s Mandate to Taika Waititi
The latest Thor movie didn’t need long to become another smashing success for Marvel. Despite some mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Thor: Love and Thunder gave star Chris Hemsworth one of the best opening weekends of his career. Still, at just under two hours, Love and Thunder’s runtime is one of the shortest Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in years, and the list of who’s not in the movie is almost as long as who is. Love and Thudner‘s shorter runtime that led to heavy cuts might have stemmed from Marvel’s mandate to director Taika Waititi.
Who was cut from ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’? Several stars didn’t make the cut because of the runtime
Love and Thunder is Waititi’s second MCU movie. He also directed Thor: Ragnarok. For the latest Thor film, he convinced Natalie Portman to return and Christian Bale to sign on to another comic book movie. Yet several parts played by notable actors didn’t make the final cut.
Peter Dinklage was rumored to return to the MCU as Eitri, but his scenes aren’t in the movie. A lawsuit against Lena Headey confirmed her Love and Thunder role, but Dinklage’s fellow Game of Thrones alum doesn’t appear. The movie’s IMDb page lists Jeff Goldblum’s hairstylist and makeup artist among the crew, but not the actor. Waititi has no plans for a director’s cut, so their footage will probably remain unseen.
Love and Thunder‘s shorter runtime would directly impact what Waititi could include in the movie, and Marvel might have forced the director to keep Love and Thunder on the short side.
Marvel might have mandated a short ‘Love and Thunder’ runtime for director Taika Waititi
Several cameos included in Waititi’s script never made it into the final Thor: Love and Thunder cut. Which might have been because Marvel instructed the director to stick to a two-hour runtime. Or that the studio wouldn’t give final approval until it fit into a 120-minute window.
As The Direct reports, Waititi didn’t necessarily have free reign to do anything he wanted. A slightly longer runtime, which would have included all those cameos, would have impacted how many times the movie could screen in theaters each day.
Still, Kevin Feige, who has produced all MCU movies, has never seemed to pay much attention to runtimes before.
Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which hit theaters three months ahead of Love and Thunder, clocked in at a little over two hours. The 2021 MCU movies Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home all ran significantly longer than two hours. The Direct speculates that higher powers at Marvel and Disney forced Feige and Waititi to keep Love and Thunder to two hours.
Will there be a ‘Thor 5’? Waititi has ideas for the next installment of the franchise
When the credits roll after Thor: Love and Thunder‘s short runtime, a line reads that Thor will return, which surprised Waititi and Hemsworth when they saw it since nothing has been confirmed. That didn’t prevent the New Zealand-born director from sharing his ideas for Thor 5 with earnestness and humor.
Waititi said he’d only sign on for Thor 5 if Hemsworth stars (which seems like it would be a given). He also said it would have to be a surprising and fresh take on the character. Then the director joked about doing a Thor road trip movie along the lines of Nebraska.
We’ll have to wait for official news about Thor 5, but Marvel might want to consider it. Love and Thunder earned more than $144 million in the U.S. its opening weekend, and it surged past $380 million in earnings worldwide in a week.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now in theaters.
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