Fans knew from the moment the first teaser trailers dropped that Thor: Ragnarok was operating on a very different wavelength than the previous installments. It’s not a knock on Thor director Kenneth Branagh or anything, but the original movie was released early in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in retrospect, it seems like Disney and Marvel had a plan, but just weren’t sure how audiences wanted it executed. Now we know. They like their god of thunder with one-liners and weird humor galore.
Maybe it’s the Deadpoolefication of the comic book movie genre, or perhaps this is Chris Hemsworth and Marvel listening to the fans. Or in this case, the mouthpiece for many fans — Kevin Smith. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hemsworth explained that he found inspiration after Smith mercilessly bashed the first two Thor movies.
“Hearing someone like Smith, who represents the fanboy world, was such a kick in the ass to change gears. We sort of had nothing to lose. People didn’t expect what we did with it this time around.”
Hemsworth described feeling “frustrated and bored,” and let his boss Kevin Feige know it. Ultimately, it came down to shaking up the predictability of the first two Thor movies, with Hemsworth pushing the fact that the third film had to be “funnier; it has to be unpredictable. Tonally, we’ve just got to wipe the table again.”
It worked. Short-haired Thor is dominating the box-office, even without his hammer. Jeff Goldblum’s magnificent presence didn’t hurt either.