Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth standalone Thor film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is now in theatres. Chris Hemsworth returns to reprise his role as Thor in the Marvel Studios sequel, which also reunites him with director Taika Waititi and several other familiar faces.
Natalie Portman‘s Dr. Jane Foster has become a little mighty of her own in this regard. The film has received mixed reviews, with some hailing it as a fun summer blockbuster and others bemoaning aspects such as the tone, writing, and pacing. Audiences have expressed dissatisfaction with the show’s speed in particular.
Due to its short running time, some scenes and characters may have been overlooked.
Many MCU fans believe that following the massive success of Waititi’s last MCU film, Thor: Ragnarok, he was given near-free freedom to do anything he wanted with Love and Thunder. However, it appears that this isn’t the case.
What Led Marvel Studios Restrict Thor?
It’s intriguing to ponder why Marvel would make Taika Waititi’s film so short. Some of the most popular MCU films, like Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home, clock in at over two and a half hours.
Waititi’s early versions of the film may have been a little slow to arrive. In fact, there have been whispers of a four-hour Love and Thunder that was only a rough cut.
Shorter films allow Marvel and Disney to fit more screenings into a single day, resulting in a higher profit margin. Kevin Feige, the CEO of Marvel Studios, isn’t known for being a fan of surprises.
Maybe the decision was out of his hands because he wouldn’t be that blunt about limiting a creator in realizing their vision for an MCU project? Anyone who indicated they wanted to keep it under two hours must have meant business because Thor 4 clocks in at exactly one hour and 59 minutes.
When it comes to a director’s cut, filmmaker Taika Waititi has stated that what viewers see is exactly what they’ll get. This, on the other hand, is hardly shocking. Director’s cuts and extended versions have never been attempted by Marvel Studios.
A few years back DC and Warner Bros. famously and forcibly kept the theatrical version of Justice League under a two-hour running time, which many feels were to the great detriment of the film itself.
Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder is currently playing in theatres, despite the film’s lengthy running time and arbitrary time limit imposed by those in power.
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Marvel Imposed a Deadline for the Release of Thor 4
According to Joanna Robinson of The Ringer-Verse podcast, the upper management at Marvel Studios informed Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Love and Thunder, that he was required to keep the movie’s runtime at less than two hours, which restricted the number of scenes that could be included in the fourth installment.
“Taika having a blank check on this is absolutely not the case. He got more leeway than he got with Ragnarok, but there was a mandate to bring this movie in under two hours. This comes in under two hours and they cut a ton of stuff out of this movie,”
Robinson also said that several elements needed to be eliminated owing to this restriction, including appearances from characters as well as the concept that the antagonist Gorr was supposed to “murder a number of other people:”
“Taika is on record as not being in director’s cuts. We know Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey [were supposed to appear] and Simon Russell Beale appeared as Dionysus and had like two lines in this movie but has an above-the-line credit, so he was definitely supposed to be in this more. Gorr was definitely supposed to come in and kill a bunch of other people.”
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