Following the release of the Taika Waititi-directed Thor: Love and Thunder, the audience reception was divided; some were marveling at the fun-packed, colorful, emotional, comedic premise, while others were a bit underwhelmed by the endeavor altogether, especially when put in comparison with earlier Thor installments. While everyone is entitled to their personal opinions, it is undeniable that the cast and crew involved in the making of the film were quite excited about it. This includes co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who opened up about her experiences in a recent interview, where she described the movie as, “a very, very expensive run and gun indie film.”
Robinson, who is the director of the upcoming Netflix film Do Revenge starring Maya Hawke, Camila Mendes, and Austin Abrams, expressed her respect for Waititi’s craftsmanship, her “reverence” for MCU, how the villain of the movie, Gorr’s character was shaped and built upon, and how they tackled the emotional parallelism in the film.
The Search For Parallelism In Love And Thunder
The 34-year-old director emphasized how much the Marvel Cinematic Universe truly means to her and how writing dialogues for all the characters she loves was a surreal experience. While working with Taika Waititi, Robinson would search for parallelism in already existing MCU films. When asked about how the pair brought James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy canon elements into the world of Love and Thunder, this is what she had to say:
“For Taika and I to be able to say, ‘What are the parallels for these characters? What has James Gunn created? What has Taika created? Where do the parallels lie?’ and how to bring that out and use that to tap into the emotionality of this story.”
In the film, we saw Peter Quill’s character express his sentiments for Gamora and how he resonated with, but also uplifted a heartbroken Thor who was scared of losing the ones he loves. Quill was seen stating that it’s better to feel bad when you lose someone than to feel empty. According to Robinson, this was a pivotal aspect:
“Looking at all that Thor has lost and all that Quill has lost, there is a lot of overlap there. It felt like a natural place to have Quill be this voice in Thor’s head that can push him toward his arc for the movie.”
When talking about Waititi and his work on the film, Robinson could only commend his efforts. From fleshing out Gorr, who’s a tragic yet formidable villain, in a world that befits Waititi’s fun, comedic style of storytelling to ideating the Korg-narrated montage featuring Thor and Jane Foster, the director did it all. “The magic of Taika,” as claimed by Robinson.
Jane Foster’s Catchphrases Ensured Constant Rewriting
Read also: Love And Thunder Confirms Jane Foster/Mighty Thor Has Always Been Worthy
When asked about the amount of work and effort put into the Mighty Thor’s catchphrases, Robinson emphasized that they would rewrite the script almost every day. Apparently, this process mainly involved the writer running around with her laptop and typing things down constantly. This is how she explained the situation:
“It was a lot of me running around with a laptop and typing things down and listening. ‘Does this work?’ Carrying a computer around and being like, ‘I think I wrote what you guys wanted?'”
Seems like it was quite a trial and error-based affair. The screenwriter also said that the whole experience made Love and Thunder evolve into a “very, very expensive run and gun indie film.” However grueling the work may have been, Robinson said that everyone collaborated on it, since the film involved a crew where everyone had a voice.
The co-writer shared many other details in the interview which are worth the glimpse. Overall, Robinson concluded by saying that she learned a whole lot from Taika Waititi on set which she has taken with her. In her upcoming film Do Revenge, Robinson has implemented whatever she could learn and adapt by watching Waititi.
While Do Revenge can be streamed on Netflix on 16 September 2022, Thor: Love and Thunder is out in theatres.
Source: THR
