“How the MCU Was Made”is a series of deep-dive articles that delve into the ins and outs of the development history, production, and release of all the Marvel Studios movies.
Marvel Studios isn’t necessarily keen on dwelling on — or even admitting, really — mistakes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe had a couple of creative missteps early on with the troubled productions ofThe Incredible Hulk andIron Man 2, but instead of harping on what went wrong, they quietly applied what they learned in making those movies to their future films. But afterAvengers: Age of Ultron, there was still one major character who felt a little ill-defined: Thor. InThor he’s a Shakespearean figure; inThe Avengers he’s a concerned brother with a surprising knack for quips; and inAge of Ultron he’s a man fond of hot-tubbing with otherworldly beings.Thor: The Dark World took the character to an overly dramatic place with mixed results, and so when it came time to make a thirdThor movie, Marvel decided to try something they hadn’t done before: soft-reboot their own franchise. In the process — and with the help of a serious organizational shift at Marvel — they paved the way forward for even bolder storytelling. This is the story of howThor: Ragnarok was made.
To get to the radically different Thor inThor: Ragnarok, we must first consider not just the character’s depiction in the MCU, but also the career trajectory ofChris Hemsworth. The firstThor was arguably the biggest risk of Marvel’s Phase One — a true fantasy film that also had to be grounded in the tech-based superhero world of the MCU. DirectorKenneth Branagh pulled it off by drawing parallels to Shakespeare and giving Thor a human girlfriend, but the character was still a bit stiff by the movie’s end. InThe Avengers, writer-directorJoss Whedon brought out Hemsworth’s innate comedic sensibilities to delightful results, but the character still had to ground the drama of the film as the brother of its tragic villain. By the timeAge of Ultron rolled around, Thor was basically “Hawkeyed” in that sequel, forced to do busy work and spout expository dialogue meant to set up the Infinity Stones for the comingAvengers sequels. Still, Hemsworth’s excellent comedic timing shone through in bits and pieces, and outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor was eager to crack some jokes.
2015’sVacation was Hemsworth’s first genuine comedic performance onscreen, and while the part was small, he made an impression. It also spoke volumes that the next year he agreed to play the secretary in the female-frontedGhostbusters redo. A supporting, somewhat thankless role was not the most expected of moves from a superhero movie star, but Hemsworth made a meal out of it, and audiences and critics responded kindly. Behind the scenes, as Marvel readied a thirdThor movie, Hemsworth was helping move the franchise in a new direction. One that would rework the character as something of a lovable doofus instead of a humorless god.
Work officially began onThor 3 in January 2014, withDark World co-writerChristopher Yost and former Marvel Studios executiveCraig Kyle hired to pen the screenplay. Kyle had worked previously as SVP of production and development at Marvel, executive producingThe Dark World. But whileDark World was a success at the box office and netted fairly positive reviews, its reputation waned quickly when it was followed by superior films likeCaptain America: The Winter Soldier andGuardians of the Galaxy.
In October 2014, Marvel announced the thirdThor movie would be titledThor: Ragnarok, referring to a comic book storyline that signaled “the end of all things.” The announcement was made at the same time that Marvel revealed plans for a two-partAvengers: Infinity War saga, leading many to believeRagnarok might serve as a dark precursor to the major cinematic event to come.
Development continued, but by Summer 2015Thor 3 still didn’t have a director despite Hemsworth andTom Hiddleston having signed deals to return and co-star. That changed in October, when Marvel somewhat unexpectedly choseTaika Waititi to take the helm. Known for films likeBoy andWhat We Do in the Shadows, Waititi had a more comedic sensibility that felt like an odd fit for theThor franchise. But it was clear even at this stage that Marvel was thinking differently when it came toThor 3, as the other directors in the running includedRawson Marshall Thurber (We’re the Millers),Rob Letterman (Goosebumps), andRuben Fleischer (Zombieland).
As it turns out, despite having hired Yost and Kyle to writeThor 3 in 2014, at the time that Marvel was looking for a director a year later, they were still open to story changes. Marvel Studios presidentKevin Feigeexplainedhow Waititi landed theThor: Ragnarok job:
“OnThor: Ragnarok for instance, we shared with filmmakers the ten different ideas that we had for the movie, and that was not a movie, but was just sort of blue-sky thoughts. And then they would go away and come back and try and turn that into a movie. And Taika [Waititi] did a sizzle reel, which we don’t always encourage and oftentimes can be really terrible. You know, clips from other films. But Taika did a version [that was] amazing… and was scored to [“Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin]. So from the beginning, that song kind of defined what Taika was going to do with this. That it’s in the trailer, that it’s in the film - all from that first meeting, and from one of his first instincts of this movie, is very impressive."
Discussions were ongoing as to how to makeThor 3 different, and one key eureka moment came when they decided toteam Hemsworth’s character up withMark Ruffalo’s Hulk. Feige explained:
“We wanted to do something totally different with Thor. Chris Hemsworth really was like, ‘When do other Marvel players come in with me?’ … Definitely, [we] want Hela in the movie. Definitely wanted, of course, the continuing relationship with Loki. We had early ideas for Valkyrie. We were talking about Balder. We were talking about Beta Ray Bill, but, that’s not enough. But we were like, ‘We need something big.'
When the idea of Hulk came about, Marvel was in post-production onAge of Ultron, which ends with Hulk flying…somewhere. Initially, Feige told Whedon he couldn’t imply Hulk was going to space:
“We said, ‘Joss, we can’t do that because he’s not going into space and people are going to think we’re doingPlanet Hulk because Umberto has some big hot scoop that we’re doingPlanet Hulk, we can’t do it.’ He goes, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’ We said, ‘We don’t know.’ So, if you go back and look at that shot of the movie, he’s in the sky. It’s blue sky.”
When they decided Hulk would show up inThor: Ragnarok, Feige had to eat crow:
“We would jokily call itPlanet Thor for a while. I went, ‘You know what that means?’ They go, ‘What?’ I go, ‘That means Hulk went to space at the end ofUltron.’ So, I had to tell Joss. And this was a year afterUltron came out. It was kind of a big thing. We were like, ‘You gotta change it Joss, he’s not going to space.’ A year after I go, ‘Joss, guess where he’s going?’ ‘He’s going to space.'”
When Waititi signed on to directThor: Ragnarok, casting begun imminently.Cate Blanchett was hired to play the film’s villain Hela in December, and at the same timeStephany Folsom(Toy Story 4) was brought on to work on the screenplay—although she didn’t end up with any credit on the film, despite Marvel agreeing to a “story by” credit,because of an odd/dumb WGA ruling.
Eric Pearson was hired to further work on the screenplay, and even Waititi said he helped out on the screenplay a bit. It was very much an all-hands-on-deck affair, as all involved were essentially trying to reboot the character and franchise. Waititi explained his standalone approach:
“For me this is my ‘Thor One’. I’ve seen the other films and I respect them, but I can’t spend too much time thinking about this as a three-quel because then I’ll get tied up too much in respecting what went before and respecting what’s to come after. [Thor: Ragnarok] has to be a standalone film because this could be the only time I do this. I just want to make it [my] version of a Marvel film in the best way possible.”
Waititi drew inspiration from theJohn Carpenter classicBig Trouble in Little China, pitting Thor as a hero who “just wants his truck back”:
“I love heroes that really go through ordeals and then come out the other end completely changed. They come out the other side and they’ve been through the ringer. We do a lot to [Thor] in the film… To me,Ragnarok means stripping down the establishment and then building it up in a new way. ‘Ragnarok’ is what we’re doing to the character and to the franchise.”
When Pearson came onboard, there was one major story element that he decided to nix:a romance between Thor andTessa Thompson’s Valkyrie:
When Pearson took over scripting duties from original writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, Thor and Valkyrie had cozied up. “But we didn’t want to start from that place,” Pearson explained. “It was like, let’s give Valkyrie her own story that connects with Thor… and if it makes sense for them to get together, then great. You’ve got two really good-looking people who can fight and who’d probably be [good together] if the story went there, but it just didn’t. It became more about the mutual respect, and also dealing with her PTSD. She’s someone who’s drowning her sorrows in the bottle, and I just thought that was such a cool thing that you don’t often see in these movies: somebody dealing with extreme guilt and shame in a colorful, Taika Waititi[-directed] hilarious background.”
Filming onThor: Ragnarok officially began on July 4, 2016 in Australia, but before filming began (and before the sets forDoctor Strange were torn down), Waititi successfully lobbied to let him shoot a scene between Thor and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) that would fit nicely intoRangarok and add some connective tissue between the two movies. The scene worked so well that a snippet of it was used as the post-credits tag forDoctor Strange, teeing upThor: Ragnarok.
The production process forThor: Ragnarokwas unique for much of the cast, as Waititi boasted that as much as 80% of the moviewas improvised:
"My style of working is I'll often be behind the camera, or right next to the camera yelling words at people, like, 'Say this, say this! Say it this way!’ I'll straight-up give Anthony Hopkins a line reading. I don't care… Mark Ruffalo would be finished shooting for the day, and he'd come up to me and he'd be like, 'Why have we not been fired yet? We are doing the most insane stuff in this film, so where's the phone call?'"
Additional photography further shaped the picture, and even Waititi himselfwavered on the final runtime:
“My first cut was about two hours and 40 minutes… There was a time when it was going to be around 100 minutes. After Comic-Con, we decided to put lots of the jokes back in (laughs)… When I said it was gonna be 100 minutes, we were at about 100 minutes, we had just done our reshoots so we knew it was gonna come up from there, but there was a world where I thought, ‘Yeah it’s gonna maybe sit around 100 minutes, definitely no more than two hours.’ And now it’s two hours 10 minutes.”
Thor: Ragnarok was released in theaters on November 3, 2017, and it was a smashing success. Not only did it amass a whopping $854 million at the worldwide box office following a $122 million opening weekend, it garnered incredibly positive reviews. Critics raved about the film’s refreshing tone, colorful visual palate, and Hemsworth’s revitalized performance. It even boasted an incredible score by Mark Mothersbaugh, putting an end to Marvel’s streak of mostly forgettable original scores.
If Kevin Feige or the actors in the MCU were previously unwilling to speak openly about past failures,Thor: Ragnarok felt like a pretty strong statement. The film’s near-complete reboot of Thor — from his sense of humor to his haircut — is essentially an admission that the previous two movies didn’t really nail it, and it took someone like Waititi to bring Hemsworth’s charisma to the surface in the best way possible. It’s also impressive, upon reflection, that Waititi was given so much freedom to really rework and play around with Thor and the characters surrounding him. In contrast to the previous twoThor movies,Ragnarok is basically an ensemble piece, from Hiddleston’s Loki reprisal to Waititi’s scene-stealer Korg.
Thor: Ragnarok marked a significant shift in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s approach to making movies, and the timing wasn’t coincidental. Prior toThor: Ragnarok’s development, Marvel Studios was structured so that Kevin Feige reported directly to Marvel Entertainment CEOIke Perlmutter, a famously wrongheaded figure who made brilliant decisions like limiting the number of Black Widow toys because “girl toys don’t sell well.” Moreover, Perlmutter had installed a “Marvel Creative Committee” made up of individuals who would give notes on Marvel movies in development. They famously suggestedJames Gunn ditch his 70s-infused soundtrack forGuardians of the Galaxy, and were reportedly a major reason whyEdgar Wright decided to exitAnt-Man.
But in August 2015, Feige successfully reorganized the way Marvel Studios movies got made. He no longer had to report to Perlmutter, and instead would report directly to Disney studio chiefAlan Horn. This meant no more meddling from Perlmutter, and after this restructuring, one of Feige’s first orders of business was to dissolve the Marvel Creative Committee. By October 2015, Feige had hired Waititi to directThor: Ragnarok, and that winter brought in new writers to work on the script. The creative freedom that allowedThor: Ragnarok to be so dang weird was a direct result ofthis major organizational shift at Marvel in August 2015.
Thor: Ragnarok wouldn’t be the last radical new film in the MCU, as Feige and Co. kept pushing boundaries with greater risks and bigger bets on talented filmmakers, which would result in the studio’s first bona fide Oscar contender. Next week, we dig into the making ofBlack Panther.
If you missed my previous How the MCU Was Made articles, click the links below:
- Iron Man
- The Incredible Hulk
- Iron Man 2
- Thor
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Marvel’s The Avengers
- Iron Man 3
- Thor: The Dark World
- Captain America; The Winter Soldier
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Captain America: Civil War
- Doctor Strange
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
