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Has Thor: Ragnarok Found A Director?

While everyone who’s paying attention to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has their eyes fixed Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange, one thing that really hasn’t been touched on is the fact that Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t have a director yet.

Since Spider-Man pushed Ragnarok’s release date from July to November, that did give production an extra four months, but the film will need to start shooting sometime next summer.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel has set its eyes on Taika Waititi to direct the third Thor film, which also had Ruben Fleischer, Rob Letterman, and Rawson Marshall Thurber vying for the gig. Waititi is a very odd choice having co-directed and co-written vampire mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows, as well as episodes of Flight of the Conchords.

Waititi may sound like an unlikely choice for the film but consider that Fleischer, Letterman, and Thurber are all best known for directing films like Zombieland, Gulliver’s Travels, and DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.

Marvel has actually knocked it out of the park when they hire directors known for comedy, such as James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy, and Joe and Anthony Russo for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In fact, the last two co-directors will be moving on to Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2, replacing Joss Whedon, after they’ve completed Captain America: Civil War.

Marvel has had issues with retaining directors or having directors drop out before a film even enters production. Edgar Wright is the primary example of this having worked on Ant-Man for almost a decade before he and Marvel went their separate ways citing “creative differences.”

Ava DuVernay, who helmed Selma, declined Black Panther and there’s enough behind-the-scenes rumors which point to a studio that seems to interfere with the director’s vision of a film in order to better align it with the whole series.

With the restructuring of Marvel Studios, it’s possible that will be a thing of the past as some of these inexplicable decisions have been reported to have originated with Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter who Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige no longer reports to. That may keep high profile directors away from working on a Marvel film until we learn if the restructuring improves matters. 

In the meantime, the studio has seemed to hit it’s stride with hiring comedy directors to deliver fun and dramatic action films. If it works, it makes sense for them to continue to do so.

While everyone who’s paying attention to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has their eyes fixed Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange, one thing that really hasn’t been touched on is the fact that Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t have a director yet. Since Spider-Man pushed Ragnarok’s release date from July to November that did give production an extra four months but the film will need to start shooting sometime next summer. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel has set it’s eyes on Taika Waititi to direct the third Thor film which also had Ruben Fleischer, Rob Letterman, and Rawson Marshall Thurber vying for the gig. Waititi is a very odd choice having co-directed and co-written vampire mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows as well as episodes of Flight of the Conchords.

Waititi may sound like an unlikely choice for the film, but consider that Fleischer, Letterman, and Thurber are all best known for directing films like Zombieland, Gulliver’s Travels, and DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.

Marvel has actually knocked it out of the park when they hire directors known for comedy such as James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy, and Joe and Anthony Russo for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In fact, the last two co-directors will be moving on to Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2, replacing Joss Whedon, after they’ve completed Captain America: Civil War.

Marvel has had issues with retaining directors or having directors drop out before a film even enters production. Edgar Wright is the primary example of this having worked on Ant-Man for almost a decade before he and Marvel went their separate ways citing “creative differences.”

Ava DuVernay, who helmed Selma, declined Black Panther, and there’s enough behind-the-scenes rumors which point to a studio that seems to interfere with the director’s vision of a film in order to better align it with the whole series.

With the restructuring of Marvel Studios, it’s possible that will be a thing of the past as some of these inexplicable decisions have been reported to have originated with Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter who Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige no longer reports to. That may keep high profile directors away from working on a Marvel film until we learn if the restructuring improves matters.

In the meantime, the studio has seemed to hit it’s stride with hiring comedy directors to deliver fun and dramatic action films. If it works, it makes sense for them to continue to do so 

Thor: Ragnarok will premiere in theaters on November 3, 2017.