“I Had No Interest” Thor Ragnarok Director Taika Waititi Explains Why He Took An MCU Job

Taika Waititi has explained exactly why he took the job of directing the MCU’s Thor: Ragnarok despite the fact he “had no interest.” Waititi’s work on the Thor sequel was a critically acclaimed break from the norm when it came to MCU installments and, in particular, the tone of Thor. His departure from the toned-down and decidedly more somber narrative of Thor and Thor: The Dark World was enough to score him the second gig directing Thor: Love & Thunder.

However, directing Thor movies wasn’t on Waititi’s agenda, as he admitted on the Smartless podcast that he did it for the money to help with his newly expanded family.

“You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor, and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’ And Thor, let’s face it, it was probably the least popular franchise. I never read Thor comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like, ‘Ugh.’ And then I did some research on it, and I read one ‘Thor’ comic or 18 pages, or however long they are. I was still baffled by this character.”