Thor: Love and Thunder has received mixed reactions from fans, though many agree the latest MCU movie felt a little short – something that was apparently mandated by Marvel Studios.
Thor: Love and Thunder clocks in at 1 hour 59 minutes, which is still the second-longest runtime of any Thor movie. However, given its grander scope than the first two films in the franchise and the fact it had two different Thors to juggle, a lot of fans feel like Love and Thunder needed more breathing room.
It has recently emerged that the runtime was supposedly not down to director Taika Waititi, but a mandate from Marvel.
Thor Under Marvel’s Hammer
The report has come from Joanna Robinson of The Ringer-Verse podcast, who claims that Marvel told Taika Waititi to keep Thor: Love and Thunder under 2 hours in length.
Why exactly Love and Thunder would have been singled out for such a mandate amongst Marvel’s Phase 4 slate is not clear. Other recent releases clearly did not have such a restriction in place – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was 2 hours 6 minutes and Spider-Man: No Way Home was a heftier 2 hours 28 minutes.
Speaking on The Ringer-Verse, Robinson said:
“Taika having a blank check on this is absolutely not the case. He got more leeway than he got with Ragnarok, but there was a mandate to bring this movie in under two hours. This comes in under two hours and they cut a ton of stuff out of this movie.
“Taika is on record as not being [into] director’s cuts. We know Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey [were supposed to appear] and Simon Russell Beale appeared as Dionysus and had like two lines in this movie but has an above-the-line credit, so he was definitely supposed to be in this more. Gorr was supposed to come in and kill a bunch of other people.”
It’s possible that this decision from Marvel was influenced by the poor critical response to Eternals, which may have come too late for major alterations to No Way Home or Multiverse of Madness, but in time for Thor: Love and Thunder to be cut down to a shorter runtime.
Taika Waititi has previously revealed he’s not interested in releasing the deleted scenes from Love and Thunder, suggesting there was little resistance from him when it came to what was left on the cutting room floor. Still, there are sure to be several fans who would like to see what didn’t make it into Thor: Love and Thunder.
Here is the synopsis for Thor: Love and Thunder:
The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.
Directed by Taika Waititi and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, the Thor solo film stars Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the film and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: The Ringer-Verse
