Taika Waititi Only Directed ‘Thor’ Because He Needed Money

Taika Waititi revealed in a new episode of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes' SmartLess podcast that he had no interest in joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a director. The New Zealand filmmaker and actor has directed two MCU movies: 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, which is widely considered one of the best Marvel movies, and the 2022 sequel Thor: Love and Thunder. The Oscar winner said he originally accepted the Marvel directing gig for the big paycheck, as he had just had his second child with his ex-wife, film producer Chelsea Winstanley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg “You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films,” Waititi said. “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.'” In the episode, the Jojo Rabbit director admits that the Thor franchise is probably the least popular in the Marvel universe. He went as far as saying as a kid, he'd pick up the comic and be like "'Ugh.'" After doing some research via an 18-page Thor comic, "or however long they are," Waititi says he was "still baffled by this character.” Waititi's Upcoming Projects Waititi said of the Marvel executives bringing him in after the lukewarm response to 2013's Thor: The Dark World. “I think there was no place left for them to go with that. I thought, ‘Well, they’ve called me in, this is really the bottom of the barrel.” Thor: Ragnarok ended up earning critical acclaim and $855 million at the worldwide box office. Love and Thunder didn't do as well, but it still made $760 million worldwide. Waititi recently told Business Insider that he knows he "won't be involved" with another Thor movie because his slate is booked for the next six or so years. He's got Next Goal Wins, Klara and the Sun, and he's currently working on a big-screen adaptation of Alejandro Jodorowsky's graphic novel The Incal, as well as developing his highly-anticipated Star Wars movie. [select-gallery gallery_id="505427" syndication_name="actors-who-appeared-in-both-dc-and-marvel" description="no"]