IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD
Marvel’s mighty threequel isn’t just taking the God of Thunder to bold new worlds: it’s the wackiest entry in the MCU to date. Total Film visits the Australian set of Thor: Ragnarok to see how Taika Waititi and his friends from work are putting a fresh sp
trailer is a blessing, but a great trailer? That can be a curse. Just ask Taika Waititi, who’s spent the last six months working towards a singular goal: delivering on the promise of the year’s best teaser. “It was so cool I remember thinking, ‘OK, how do I make this movie like that trailer?’” Waititi chuckles. The director of last year’s comic gem Hunt For The Wilderpeople needn’t have worried. “I thought, ‘I hope that’s the movie we’ve got.’ And luckily, it is.”
But let’s skip back to September 2016, a time before shattered hammers, glam Goldblum and friends from work. Total Film is on the sunny Queensland set of Thor: Ragnarok, the first Marvel movie to shoot in the southern hemisphere. Production on ‘Creature Report’ (the film’s working title) has taken over Village Roadshow Studios, a nine-stage backlot adjacent to a DC theme park, where a red-and-blue Superman rollercoaster peeks over the top of a towering wall (“People were screaming every four or five minutes,” Waititi grumbles). On this side of the enclosure, however, it’s Marvel Land. And never more so than on Ragnarok, the intergalactic Thor-quel that’s leaving Earth behind (mostly) in favour of a cosmic road trip so far out that it makes Guardians Of The Galaxy look like a kitchen-sink drama.
In a cavernous, brightly lit soundstage, Waititi gestures towards a ginormous section of the Bifröst Bridge, built to scale along the back wall. “Today, we’re filming a big scene where Thor and Loki and Hulk and Valkyrie are trying to battle the villain, Hela,” Waititi says, with a mix of enthusiasm and exhaustion. Describing it as “the most exciting part of the film”, the climactic battle took 10 days to shoot, and involved 300 extras – civilians fleeing in the Asgardian equivalent of a Megabus as gods and monsters brawl. At one end of the rainbow bridge, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Valkyrie (Creed’s Tessa Thompson) and the Hulk (Waititi, filling in for Mark Ruffalo, wearing a green fist the size of a beach ball) stand shouldergood to-shoulder and face-to-face with Cate Blanchett’s Goddess of Death. Team Thor, it seems, won’t go down without a fight. “If we do our jobs right,” teases producer Brad Winderbaum, “we’ve got a giant, epic, Ragnarok-scaled finale that is one of the biggest climactic set-pieces we’ve done at the studio.”
Ragnarok may be named for the Norse apocalypse, but you don’t hire a director like Waititi if punch-ups are the priority. Winderbaum approached the Kiwi filmmaker after being bowled over by his mock-doc What We Do In The Shadows, sensing an opportunity to reinvigorate a hero at his lowest ebb following feeble showings in Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age Of Ultron. But it was far from the obvious next step for a director of singularly idiosyncratic indie comedies. “Initially I thought, ‘Hmmm. I’m probably not the right person,’” Waititi admits. “But that’s what attracted me to it
– not knowing how comfortable I’d feel doing it.” The answer, it turns out, was very comfortable. “I made it in a similar way that I made my other films. There was a lot of improvising. It allows you to be very malleable and organic.”
Waititi estimates as much as 80 per cent of the film’s dialogue wasn’t scripted, as evidenced by today’s scene with Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Thompson all going off page, across
multiple takes. But this heavy reliance on improvisation comes with an unusual consequence – speak to most of the cast and they have no idea what the finished film will be like. “I honestly am not quite sure what to expect from this film,” says Karl Urban, who plays Hela’s right-hand skinhead Skurge. “We’ve shot so much on so many different levels, you could make a bunch of films out of the material they’ve got.” Describing it as “probably the most relaxed set I’ve ever worked on”, Urban isn’t the only one with kind words for the atmosphere Waititi cultivates. Music plays; Waititi’s video village is full of bean bags; at one point a man merrily delivers Valkyrie’s sword to Thompson on a pedal bike. “It’s the happiest set I’ve ever been on,” Blanchett says, definitively.
Everyone may be having a giggle behind the scenes, but the stakes have never been more serious for Thor Odinson. Picking up two years after
Age Of Ultron, the thunder god’s quest to track down the remaining Infinity Stones has sent him across the nine realms, leaving him “road-worn and hardened” according to Winderbaum. But Thor’s mission has been complicated by events on Asgard, where Loki’s clandestine coup has caused chaos in the absence of Anthony Hopkins’ Odin, leaving their home vulnerable to attack by Hela. In the ensuing assault, Blanchett’s destroyer of worlds strands the adoptive brothers on Sakaar, a remote planet that marks a major change for the series.
The first thing that strikes you about Sakaar are the colours. Turquoise blues, mustard yellows and pastel pinks cover the walls in patchwork fashion. It’s like stepping into the cover of a pulp sci-fi novel. Or more accurately, stepping into
‘at fiRst i thought i wasn't the Right peRson, but that's what attRacted me’ Taika WaiTiTi
a Jack Kirby illustration (see p59). “The first day Taika brought out this piece of Jack Kirby art, a painting of a face and helmet, and said, ‘This is Sakaar,’” recalls production designer Dan Hennah, no stranger to Kiwi directors having worked with Peter Jackson on all six Middle-earth movies. “It was a great opportunity to take a Marvel legend and bring him into the 21st Century.”
A revered artist from Marvel’s silver age, Kirby created Thor alongside Stan Lee in 1962. By embracing his staggeringly detailed and vibrant art, Waititi saw a way to honour Thor’s past and separate his film from the similarly cosmic Guardians movies. Sakaar, however, is literally a trash planet. With no natural resources, everything from building materials to food falls through wormholes that dominate the skyline. Wander around the bewilderingly dense marketplace set and you can’t help but notice that each stall is stocked with scrap – machine parts, empty McDonald’s bags and even a stripped quinjet in the back (Bruce Banner’s, perhaps?). Though empty today, the streets will be filled with a Mos Eisleyesque mix of surreal alien races. Put simply, it’s a comic book come to life.
Visiting strange new worlds was at the top of the agenda for the incumbent prince of Asgard. “I was talking with the guys at Marvel, even before Taika came on, about: ‘How can we show something out of this world that people haven’t seen?’” Hemsworth recalls, sitting down with TF between takes in full Asgardian gear, Sakaarian pauldrons and greaves evidence of his time away from home. “Sakaar in particular was just a wacky, insane, far-off, futuristic place, which was the biggest shift for the film and these characters.” Another major shift: Thor has been drastically affected by his time on Earth, picking up the snark and sarcasm of his fellow Avengers. Though Tom Hiddleston has another theory for Thor’s enlarged funny bone – character and actor are becoming one. “Chris has always been hilarious,” Hiddleston intones, sat next to his brother from another mother in distinctive olive-green leather armour and slick black hair. “But finally everyone’s catching up.”
He may have gained a wicked sense of humour, but Thor suffers two major losses early doors – his hammer and his hair: Mjölnir obliterated by Hela, his luscious locks snipped on Sakaar after he’s captured and brought before The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). The brother of Benicio Del Toro’s Collector, The Grandmaster is an ancient being whose word is law on the world he built. The one thing he values above all else is prowess in combat, which he puts to the test in his own coliseum.
“Like anybody who’s really powerful – Vito Corleone or somebody who runs a film studio – he doesn’t have to prove
it,” Goldblum says, with distinctive cadence. But having seen it all, the immortal Grandmaster is fascinated more by the simple things than galactic domination. “He’s very present and interested in the pleasures and annoyances of moment-to-moment life.” Goldblum was a fan of Waititi’s work, and immediately hit it off with the director, who wanted The Grandmaster “to not be so theatrical, in contrast to The Collector”. Instead, Waititi asked Goldblum to put himself into a character that already read curiously close to Goldblum on the page. “Taika didn’t want anything cartoony,” Goldblum confirms. “He wanted qualities that were in some of my behaviour in contemporary life.”
The Grandmaster is rarely seen without his ill-tempered right-hand woman, Topaz (Waititi’s good luck charm, Rachel House) and Valkyrie – the “scrapper” responsible for Thor’s capture. Valkyrie is much more than a mere scavenger, however. She’s part of an ancient race of warrior women whom Thor and Loki idolised as children, before her entire species was (almost) wiped out by Hela. But when we meet her in Ragnarok, Valkyrie is not the hero she used to be. “Much like Thor, she’s trying to figure out what to do, having left Asgard behind,” Thompson says, in dazzling silver armour, blue cloak hanging off her shoulder. “Her experience with Thor and with Hulk and eventually with Loki gives her a new purpose.” t
hompson is keen to emphasise how vital the need is for female heroes in a genre that’s all-butdominated by men, stating: “For a young girl to see a strong woman, especially one that looks like me, it’s paramount.” Blanchett agrees: “It’s just a whole world of potential that stupidly doesn’t seem to have been mined,” she says, bluntly. “I think the powers that be are finally realising that.” As for whether we’ll see Valkyrie in future Marvel movies, “Who knows?” laughs Thompson. “I definitely find myself suiting up and daydreaming in my trailer about all my superheroine friends who I’m bound to meet eventually.” She knocks on wood. “Come on, Marvel!”
As for Ragnarok’s headline superfriends, Thor and the Hulk may buddy up eventually, but their first encounter in Ragnarok is in combat. Last seen blasting off in a quinjet at
Age Of Ultron’s conclusion, the Hulk is a celebrity on Sakaar, the undefeated champion of the planet’s most popular pastime. “Hulk has loved his time on Sakaar,” Ruffalo smiles. “And why wouldn’t he? He is adored and admired. He has a hot tub in his apartment!” Satisfying deep soaks aside, there’s another reason the Hulk hasn’t transformed back into Bruce Banner in the two years he’s been off-world – getting there was so traumatic his body defaulted to the Hulk position. And now, turning back into Banner is the one thing that scares him.
With Universal currently holding the rights to a solo Ruffa-Hulk movie, Ragnarok may be the closest Marvel ever gets to a Hulk standalone and, in part, adapts the grumpy giant’s celebrated Planet Hulk comic arc. “It’s Marvel’s way of letting Hulk have his own movie without pissing Universal off!” laughs Ruffalo, who embraced Waititi’s fresh take on the MCU. “Marvel does a great job of letting directors bring their ideas, vision and style to these movies so they can be wildly creative and unique. No two are the same, and for Banner and Hulk I feel like we have been able to cover a lot of ground to make them feel alive and fresh.”
Hemsworth teases “a whole new dynamic” between Thor and the Hulk, pointing out that Thor and Banner have yet to speak, one-on-one, on screen. “There’s a whole new dynamic between Loki and Hulk as well,” Hiddleston adds. “They didn’t really have a conversation in Avengers. They had… a different kind of interaction.”
Later in the day, Total Film is reminded again of the Hulk’s previous encounters with the Brothers Asgard in The Avengers. Back on the Bifröst Bridge, Thor and the Hulk (Waititi still standing in for Ruffalo, cardboard cutout of the Hulk’s head suspended two feet over his
‘hemswoRth has always been hilaRious; finally eveRyone's catching up’ Tom hiddlesTon