Taika Waititi has spilled the beans on the making of his Marvel sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder.
The director spoke to Insider, where he revealed secrets from the set. Revelations include how Natalie Portman had to walk on raised stages to appear as tall as Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and Russell Crowe filmed all of his scenes as Zeus twice: once with a British accent and another with the Greek accent that made the finished film.
Waititi also revealed that the choice to have the goats – Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher in the comics – screaming throughout the movie was from a viral Taylor Swift meme that saw a goat screaming the chorus to her hit, ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’.
But perhaps the most intriguing revelation is that the film nearly had a Game of Thrones reunion. Both Lena Headey and Peter Dinklage filmed scenes that were eventually cut from the final edit.
Peter Dinklage would’ve been reprising his Avengers: Infinity War role of Eitri, the King of the Dwarves of Nidavellir, while Jeff Goldblum also filmed a scene (or scenes), reprising his role of Thor Ragnarok’s Grandmaster.
‘When you go into the edit you just never know,’ Waititi said. ‘A scene on its own could be the most funniest thing or intriguing thing, but sometimes those things if you keep them in will just make the movie screech to a halt. So, you have to do what’s best for the film.’
‘If you ask any of those actors who were cut out – Jeff Goldblum, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage – they all understand how it works. They have been in the game long enough,’ Waititi added.
It’s unclear which Marvel character Headey would have been portrayed, although some fan sites point to the villainous Enchantress. While it may disappoint some fans, Waititi expressed relief that the scenes were cut.
‘I don’t want people to see the deleted scenes because they’re deleted for a reason,’ he said. ‘They aren’t good enough.’