They could’ve called it Hulk and I
Thor: Ragnarok director Waititi inspired by jet-black buddy flick
Withnail and I is not the first film you would expect to hear namechecked at a press conference for an all-star, $180-million superhero movie.
But the 1987, jet-black British comedy about the codependent relationship between two broke actors in the 1960s living in a squalid London flat was used as a reference by director Taika Waititi when discussing the tone he wanted for parts of Thor: Ragnarok. He wanted it to inform the key relationship between the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor.
“When I first talked to Mark about doing the film, the thing we connected on was (when), I said: ‘This is going to be Withnail and I in space, with you and Chris,’ says Waititi, in Beverly Hills alongside the cast of Thor: Ragnarok.
Waititi is talking about one scene in particular. Thor and the Hulk are both imprisoned on a strange planet named Sakaar, where they are forced to fight each other in a gladiatorial contest overseen by a 14-billionyear-old dictator named the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum.)
The old Avengers buddies argue, fight and — in the scene in question — eventually make up. Granted, they also go on a dizzying rampage in an attempt to escape their captors. But Waititi, whose past work includes small and funny independent films in his native New Zealand, such as What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, wanted their relationship to have a down-to-earth, bickering buddy-comedy vibe to it.
“That’s what grounds the film a little more for the audience,” Waititi says. “Superheroes do have to make up after arguments as well. That’s what I love about being given the opportunity in this film: to show that side of these really crazy, big characters.”
Thor: Ragnarok may not quite hit the dark comedic peaks of Withnail of I, but it’s safe to say the third outing for the crown prince of Asgard is the most broadly comedic of the bunch.
There are still big themes coursing beneath the plot. Thor’s family continues to harbour Shakespearean levels of dysfunction. The title itself is a touch grim, referencing an impending apocalyptic battle that has been prophesied to destroy Thor’s home planet of Asgard.
It’s being brought about by a new villain name Hela, played with scenery-chewing glee by Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett. Thor also gets some new sidekicks, including an ass-kicking warrior named Valkyrie played by Tessa Thompson and a friendly, rock-based warrior named Korg expertly voiced by Waititi. All of this is wrapped in the sort of special effects and action sequences we’ve come to expect from a massive-budgeted superhero film.
What’s surprising is the tone. Waititi encouraged improvisation on set, lending a looseness to the production.
“I think we all had a vision and an idea and a want to do something vastly different than what we’d done before and take it to a different place,” Hemsworth said. “And that meant kind of doing away with what we knew, and just reinventing it, and it all came from (Waititi’s) crazy, wonderful brain, and his inspiration, and him pushing us every day on set and constantly encouraging us to improvise and explore and take risks.”
When Blanchett is asked if she could see Shakespearean elements in Hela, she admits she “didn’t think about Shakespeare very much on this one ... It was hugely enjoyable for me,” she says.
“And apart from working with these guys, obviously, the chance to finally, in my deep middle age, to get fit and wear that much Lycra was really exciting for me.”
Thor: Ragnarok also sees the return of Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s father Odin, Emmy nominee and acclaimed stage actor Tom Hiddleston as our hero’s duplicitous brother Loki and Oscar-nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, who shows up as Doctor Strange in an amusing cameo.
There seems ample opportunities to spin off a number of these new characters into films of their own. Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige asked Mark Ruffalo what he would do if he had his own Hulk movie.
“I said, ‘I’d like to do this, this, and this and this and this and then this and then this, and this, and this, and then it would end like this,’” Ruffalo says. “And he’s like, ‘I love that. Let’s do that over the next three movies, starting with Thor 3 and carry it on through Avengers 3 and Avengers 4.’ And so that’s my stand-alone Hulk movie.”