There are two kinds of Marvel Studios films. There are the movies like Iron Man and Ant-Man that are designed to tell a mostly self-contained story, and then there are the blockbusters like The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War that are built to celebrate the depth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given that the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok will co-star Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, there has been some question as to just how much world-building the film would do -- but now we have an answer. According to director Taika Waititi, it will fall into the "standalone" category.
With Waititi's new film, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, arriving in theaters this Friday, I had the pleasure of talking with the filmmaker on the phone late last week -- and after sharing some great stories about his new movie (stay tuned), we also talked a bit about his work on Thor: Ragnarok. I asked him about watching the previous Thor movies and how he was developing the blockbuster within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he explained that he is much more interested in telling his own God of Thunder story than something that plays into the bigger franchise. Said Waititi,
I think the main focus for me is that this one, I want to feel like a standalone film. It's not an episode. For me, it's not an episode. It's part of a whole, but you're going to see this film and if you've seen only one Marvel film, and you see this one, you won't need to see all of the others to make sense of it.
So if you've been holding on to theories about Thanos playing a big role in Thor: Ragnarok, it's probably time to just let those ideas die.
While Thor: Ragnarok will be a "standalone" movie within the context of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, Taika Waititi will have the responsibility of providing some big answers to lingering questions. Specifically, we all really want to know exactly what happened to The Hulk after he flew away from Black Widow in the Quinjet and seemingly crash-landed somewhere near Sri Lanka. Somehow he is getting from that point to Asgard, and fans are dying to know exactly how that goes down.
Taika Waititi landed the Thor: Ragnarok directing gig late in 2015, and he has been developing a script written by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Stephany Folsom. He has assembled one of the best ensembles that Marvel Studios has featured yet, as stars Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo are joined by Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, and Karl Urban. The movie is slated to be the third Marvel movie of 2017, coming out on November 3, 2017, but our anticipation is at an extreme high.
Certainly fueling that excitement is knowing just how talented Taika Waititi is, as his new movie Hunt For The Wilderpeople is wonderful, beautiful and hilarious. All of you should make an attempt to see it, as it will be getting a limited release this Friday, June 24th.
