Welcome, heroes.
Your journey has been a long one.
Now what will you do with all that power?
You know what I will do?
First, I will heal my wife and my son,
and all the afflicted.
They say that a water demon brings this plague.
Well, I will find it and I will kill it.
And I will find the god who sent it, and I will kill it.
It's been long time since I've seen you smile.
I guess I smile when I see you.
WOMAN: Can you smile with your eyes?
Turn aside, go back to where you came or perish...
FEIGE: There are lot of ways to go with Thor.
He's been drawn with more muscles than any human can possibly have,
with long, flowing blond hair.
But we knew early on that we didn't want to
just cast a body builder or just cast a wrestler.
I'm sure there are some that can act very, very well.
But we said let's find the actor first and see if we can build on to the body.
We did what was right.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
His very impressive-looking physique that looks like
it can take that kind of intense physical build-up
we're gonna have to put him through,
an intelligence, an acting intelligence that is very special,
and ability to tap into his primal side as well.
FEIGE: You can't help but watch him. He has a presence.
I love you, Mom.
I love you.
He's got a humor about him.
I need a horse.
Of course. Of course.
BRANAGH: We waited until we felt in our bones
we've got exactly the right person for Thor,
and Chris Hemsworth is that.
HEMSWORTH: The idea of it being finished has been sort of this
light at the end of the tunnel for, yeah, a long time.
And now being here is sort of like, "Shit, now what do I do?"
-This doesn't make any sense. -Nah, nothing makes sense here, man.
The only thing that does make sense is that nothing makes sense.
Has anyone here fought the Grandmaster's champion?
WAITITI: Cut.
I freaking cut.
Cut.
Taika, I just love working with him.
We have a great thing, we've become great friends,
and that certainly is a huge advantage
because you just shortcut to whatever the point is.
WINDERBAUM: When we set out to make Thor three,
we knew we could blow the franchise wide open.
We had an opportunity to reinvent the character completely.
Ragnarok was obviously a huge change for us
and really moved the needle into
such a different territory than we'd originally started.
Of all the Avengers, maybe it was an advantage to
be the underdog at a certain point because there was a...
It definitely gave me a kind of a real competitive push
and a want or a need to go,
"I can do something different. I can do better with this character."
WAITITI: I've always said Chris is the kind of person who you feel
like is fun, and he's a good friend.
And he's the kind of person that you would want to be on an adventure with.
Because he does like to look after people and he is an adventurer.
I think that's what you want in a superhero.
-And it's the... Right there. -Yeah. All right. Catch.
WAITITI: When I came on to do Ragnarok, I basically said,
"Look, man, you just gotta be more of yourself."
Roll.
"Make the character funny."
I swear I'm not even moving. It's just doing this on its own.
WAITITI: Concentrate on making him more of a Chris Hemsworth.
Yes!
So much has happened since I last saw you.
I lost my hammer, like, yesterday. So that's still pretty fresh.
HEMSWORTH: Both of us were like, "Can we really raise the bar with Ragnarok?"
And I remember coming out of Ragnarok, going into
Infinity War and Endgame,
and very adamant about trying to hang onto the new version of Thor
and not go back to the old version.
I had some of the funnest stuff I had in Infinity War and Endgame.
And then Love and Thunder.
There's a huge amount of pressure coming into this.
He's got tight, blue denim jeans on, a tank top.
His hair's flowing. Instead of it being...
-Ah! Elegant. -It should... We're just saying that.
Like, every move is like... (MAKES DRAMATIC SOUND)
-You know? -WAITITI: Everyone, it's amazing.
HEMSWORTH: And then everything's like...
A little bit flamboyant, like, a double kick, like...
-Shit you'd never get away with normally. -WAITITI: Yeah.
HEMSWORTH: Which adds to the like, (SIGHS) "What is he doing?"
And everything's just got a little flair to it, like...
-A flourish. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I just think that he's so like...
WAITITI: Yeah.
-Find cool poses, all of that stuff. -He could... He's like...
Yeah, on the camera. They are on record. I support this.
This is probably... This is actually... 'Cause we had a... That's your idea.
-We're all in it. So, yeah. -You basically are just underneath me.
-Yeah. -It is my idea.
-Yeah, yeah. Yeah. -I would've thought about this.
'Cause you built me, you own me.
I knew you'd say that.
Thor is actually now our longest-running franchise character.
This is the first time we've done a fourth movie.
And I think with that there's some expectations
to keep building upon it.
Memorable and different.
And a big like kickoff to the film and the action.
When we set out to make a fourth film,
we knew we couldn't make Ragnarok all over again.
We had to find, you know, new angles, new surprises
and new places to take these characters.
Wait, wait, wait. Play that one.
No, go back. Play that.
-MAN: Thor... Sif... -Sif?
-MAN: Yep, that's Sif what? -(HEMSWORTH SNORTS)
-(MAN LAUGHING) -I'm sorry. It killed me.
With the Guardians, it's just a very different pace with that group, you know?
A lot of improvisation, which is
very much how we worked on Thor: Ragnarok.
Charger? Maybe you need a charger?
Of course I need to charge it. I don't know where the dock is...
THOR: Who put you in charge? Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey!
HEMSWORTH: It's never kind of...
You're competing for jokes. It's basically about
what's the funniest moment within this scene that we can find
and kinda help you share the load.
And whoever has the button or the punchline, doesn't really matter,
it's just about hitting the target, and it's fun.
I don't know which is worse, but it's why I keep everyone at arm's length.
You've grown too attached. Damn it, I knew this would happen.
You must go.
There's a kind of humor to it and sort of irony
and a wackiness that seems to fit mine and Taika's brain.
Lazybones.
Let's go.
Asleep? Sleeping on the job, are we? (GRUMBLES) Lazy.
Just being here at the back, try going a little bit longer,
so I might get a shot on you from the front just going... You know?
I've been told you can summon them with a special whistle...
that goes something like this... (WHISTLES)
No, that's not it. (WHISTLES) No, that's not it.
Summoning. Summoning goats.
It's just a joy to watch Taika play Korg
because, obviously, he's going back and forth
between directing and playing Korg.
And because it's motion capture, he has all these dots on his face.
So you're trying to take him seriously in one moment giving you direction,
and then suddenly he's Korg again
with the head attached to him and his furry boots.
Taika, of course, as we know, is an improvisational filmmaker.
Add a bit more rock stuff here, Shane.
Let's just bring it up here. This is where Rocket's gonna be.
So Sean... Sean, we're gonna map you over here, actually.
MORRISON: It's honestly when your brain is the most fully engaged
because there are no limitations.
With a lot of filmmakers, there's responsible practicality,
where you look at what you can do, and T just doesn't do that.
He just thinks of the end product, as in like, "What would be cool?"
"What would be the coolest thing to see?" 'Cause he's 90%
there in the audience already watching the film he's making.
-That's what I made here, so... -You're throwing it to those guys there.
-I can look there as well. So there. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think Taika, he's like a big kid. His imagination is second to none.
From the very first time we worked together,
it was about doing something new, you know,
and not getting put in a box.
Taika is really good at reflecting the way life can be.
Dark and comedic all at once.
The old ex-girlfriend.
Jodie Foster.
Jane Foster.
The one that got away.
Most of the time when we're in our darkest moments,
we try and deflect it with humor, you know,
or if it's absurd, so it's funny
because the darkest parts of life are completely absurd.
So, I think he really knows how important the silly is
when the world is falling down.
(LAUGHS)
Okay. Hold. They're not bad.
Tragedy-comedy has been going hand in hand for a couple of thousand years.
Yeah, and he does it impeccably.
I think also it doesn't matter what sort of genre, whether it's comic books,
if the people involved are passionate about it and are good storytellers,
it's transcendent experience. You know?
And with Taika, you get that.
It's the... Oh, boy! Oh, well, let me get away with it.
One of the most exciting things about working with Taika Waititi
is that he is very technical, he's very aware, very savvy
of all of the tools and the tricks,
whether they be old-fashioned tricks or new technology.
We're shooting on The Volume.
It's the first time I've ever shot inside of one of these things.
You can see the background projected 360 and up to the sky.
Pretty spectacular. So it's all in-camera.
And it looks pretty amazing.
This is the first Marvel film that has utilized The Volume,
which is this amazing technology
that allows you to be completely surrounded 360 degrees
in a digital environment.
It allows you to seamlessly place practical sets with a digital world.
MORRISON: As pertains to The Volume,
you're basically building a room from LED panels,
and so at a moment we can say, we're in this world, or in that world,
and then, literally, the entire environment around the actors
will change in a heartbeat
in terms of the lighting and the mood and the tone.
That's a game changer.
WAITITI: I had such a good experience on Mandalorian with The Volume
that I wanted to bring that technology over to this shoot.
Resplendent skyscape, Rocky. There are four suns.
What could be more relaxing than that?
WAITITI: It's a wonderful tool, and, in a way, you get a lot of stuff in-camera.
And, yeah, we only have to do a few tweaks to it later on.
And that's really good for the actors
to be able to see the world that you've created.
-Wow. -Yeah.
Beautiful.
THOR: So beautiful, so rare.
WAITITI: Being able to see it in the moment as opposed to
just being in a world of blue,
I think it helps with their performances.
HEMSWORTH: If you're standing on the edge of a cliff, so to speak,
looking out into the sunset, to actually be staring into a sunset,
that certainly does pull out certain emotions and reactions from you
that you may or may not get there if it's your own imagination.
It's very different staring at a blue screen or a green screen.
You know, that's quite numbing and does require a whole lot more effort.
THOMPSON: The Volume is incredible. It essentially casts light
on our faces, on the costumes.
It feels really, really immersive.
As impressive as The Volume is,
I think I was really blown away entering New Asgard.
Stand by for shoot.
You can never really replace just standing in a fully immersive set.
And perhaps one of the most impressive sets we created was New Asgard,
which was a complete town in the middle of nowhere.
And the second you stepped onto it, you would just get completely lost.
That's pretty cool, this town is all practical.
Real houses.
People live up here. We've rented these rooms out.
Tessa's actually staying in that room. Tessa Thompson.
Yeah, I think I'm just gonna move in actually. Is that...
-That's cool, right? -You got some Infinity Cones up here,
-which is these delicious ice creams. -Mmm-hmm.
I actually came up with the name Infinity Cones.
It's a wordplay on Infinity Stones.
-Did you write it? I didn't think... -Yeah.
-...that was you. I didn't... -No, no, I did. (SHUSHING)
WAITITI: Going into this, we knew people missed Natalie's character
and was never really dealt with, like, what happened to her.
The idea that she becomes another version of Thor,
that just seemed like the perfect in,
and the perfect way to bring that character back.
The elements that come with Jane becoming The Mighty Thor are inherently dramatic.
And in many ways, tragic.
And Taika was very interested about telling that story.
I've loved Natalie from afar for a long time
and I've always wanted to work with her.
Taika came over to my house to talk to me about it
because I had, kind of, you know, of course, not been in the last film,
which was so wonderful and I really enjoyed watching.
WAITITI: Please welcome to the stage Natalie Portman!
As a fan, I remember watching the announcement
and seeing Natalie take the hammer from Taika at Comic-Con,
and I was just so excited that she was going to rejoin this film.
PORTMAN: I just had been out of the Marvel world for a while and...
So, when he talked to me about coming back and about how
Jane would be The Mighty Thor,
it was interesting to get to consider
what that experience could be.
Mjolnir!
She was, kind of... You know, this was a very different direction
for the character, and I think had some real concerns about,
"Hang on, does this match? The continuity from this to that and..."
And we just said, "That doesn't matter." Like, you know?
That's what happened in Ragnarok.
We went "Who cares about anything we've done before?"
And so, it was just kind of a rebirth or new exploration of the character,
and she was down for it.
Natalie came in very early, ready to work.
She wanted to master everything as much as possible,
so she could do as much as possible.
Despite having been in lots of action movies,
I'd never really done any fight training or anything.
Half is going from here, pulling it back.
Remember when we did that shuffle footwork?
Into that step. And going over to kneel.
And you're going diagonal down.
It was really fun to get to train
for the first time in my life to be strong, you know?
Usually, as women, we're training to get small as possible.
So it's exciting to actually be working towards being bigger.
Stand down.
WINDERBAUM: Natalie showed up in incredible shape.
Like, she was ready to play Mighty Thor.
This is the heavy one. I'm clearly not worthy.
Not really. But this one is...
Often, if we wanna create weight, so your guns can show.
So, we will create a prop in a heavy weight,
depending on the action.
And then we'll create them in a lighter weight.
This one, as you can see.
THOR: Excuse me.
Hello, that's my hammer you've got there.
And that's my look.
PARK: For Mighty Thor, we wanted to maintain a Thor feel...
There's certain elements that are iconically Thor.
...while adding new elements throughout.
The helmet that we have,
we went back to the old comic books and got that vintage feeling for it.
And we adapted to the beautiful face of Natalie Portman,
but we didn't want to hide too much of her eyes and her features.
Hey.
It's very easy not to lose her because she's unique.
WINDERBAUM: Those helmets are really well-designed,
but they're not always the most comfortable thing in the world.
Sometimes they're heavy, they change your posture.
But if you can eliminate all of that and have a VFX artist put it in later,
then that's what you do.
Our CG artists have gotten so great
at creating reflective surfaces like the helmet,
that it actually helps us from a performance standpoint.
BALE: Natalie does a really beautiful job in this.
You know, there's some scenes which are tough to watch.
And she's really just a wonderful heart and soul.
As good as it gets.
It's a gift to see Natalie rediscover and reimagine who Jane Foster is.
You think I really should be coming?
You're a Thor. Of course you should come.
I think so often, not just in these movies but in general,
it's really rare to get to share the screen with other women.
Sometimes you're the only one.
And in this case, I think it's really impactful,
particularly because Jane Foster is a character
that doesn't start off as a superhero.
PORTMAN: Tessa is such a ferocious actress.
We had a lot of fun getting to show, I think, the sisterhood in battle.
THOMPSON: I've done a lot of physical preparation.
I just wanted to push myself to get even stronger than I was on the last one.
The thing that really excites me is
getting to play a superhero that bucked convention.
And the opportunity to get to bring this character to life.
This character that doesn't necessarily look like me in the comics,
but to capture her spirit was a tremendous challenge,
and to get to do it with people that I admire and respect.
This is the best day of my life!
There's also a moment where everyone,
if you think about as your primary school class...
CHAPEK: This is probably the biggest Thor movie we've ever done.
This movie introduces so many amazing alien species,
monsters, creatures...
All right, there you go.
The Indigarrians, that was an army of aliens, which was massive.
God of Thunder.
King Yakan.
JOHANSEN: It was a production line for the Indigarrians.
We had some big days.
The Indigarrians had brow pieces and cheeks and they had big, scared eyes.
We had people that were sponging them blue,
people that were gluing on the prosthetics,
people that were spray-painting them, and powdering them, and...
Yeah, it was something to really see.
Yes! Bucket list, tick.
CHAPEK: They're just so funny. It's so effortless.
And then we have these amazing alien owl-bikers called the Booskans.
I drink the stiffest cordials and...
MAN: Straight to the...
And all the black jellybeans. Black jellybeans.
Whereas these guys eat colored jellybeans.
I can't stand them.
JOHANSEN: The Booskans were really interesting,
'cause they weren't originally meant to be owl-creatures.
The owl-heads that we see behind us
were these warrior kind of mask.
And then the real Habooskan character was underneath that.
The more we started designing and honing in on the look of the Booskans, the mask,
the more that Taika was kinda like,
"You know what? I really like the look of these guys.
"These guys should be the creatures,
"not so much the masks that the Habooskan was wearing."
And I loved that. I thought, you know, that's...
For a creature design, I'd never seen anything like these guys.
Devastation all around.
-Our temple's been destroyed. -We're donating goats.
Apparently we're still giving away stuff 'cause that...
Yeah, that's kinda who we are.
We have nothing else.
We got nothing.
We got no temple or anything, but we're still giving away our goats.
(GOATS SCREAMING)
No backsies.
This movie is introducing two new unexpected characters
in Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, who are two space-travelling goats.
There's a Viking ship that floats through space
that's being towed by giant goats
who create fire with their hooves.
It's gonna be nuts.
It's so good, right?
Awesome. Really good.
Really good, really good, yeah. Really.
CHAPEK: You would think something like that would be completely CG,
and you'd have no reference. But we didn't do that.
It's very smooth.
CHAPEK: We actually created real-life goat heads for VFX reference,
but more so just to be able to interact with them.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
That's really awesome.
They're huge, these things. They're the size of, you know,
Clydesdale horses.
This is Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher.
They were really the trickiest thing we've done on this show.
Coming up with the design that was
true to some of the early visual development art that we received,
but giving them the most realistic finish, wanting them to look real.
There's lot of designing, incredibly detailed punched hair, silicon tongue,
got acrylic eyes in here. The horns are hard.
Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder are absolute stars.
We loved writing for them.
Retrace your steps. Where did you put the remote?
One of these goats probably ate it!
Goats didn't eat the remote. Don't be ridiculous.
One of things that the goats are really helpful with
is getting in and out of scenes and infusing more fun into a movie
that already is incredibly fun.
One of those scenes was the Grand Pantheon,
where we were like, "How do we get in and out of this scene?
"What is the fantastical way out?"
I did it.
ROBINSON: Well, what if the goats smashed through the top of the Pantheon
in the goat boat to save our heroes?
I don't know if that's possible, 'cause I come from small productions.
But this is Marvel, so, we got to do that.
Look up there. There's my god. The God of Kronans. Ninny Nonnie.
I thought he was actually not real.
Oh, no, they're all very real indeed, Korg.
(LAUGHING) I'm so sorry.
ROBINSON: The Grand Pantheon is one of the biggest set pieces in the film.
It's full of gods from all over the Cosmos.
So, we also get to include a lot of gods and people from other MCU favorites.
It's really about bringing the whole MCU together in this one space
and having our characters exist
and feel like they are truly a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
So, now flick. Right, good. Good stuff, yeah.
But now you know he's gonna step forward and...
You flicked too hard, damn it!
(SCREAMING)
(LAUGHS)
Makeup-wise, in the Golden Temple, we had 18, 20 gods to create.
I'm playing Fur God.
Although he's dyslexic, so he likes to be known as Fur Dog.
I'm gonna be up there and I'm gonna be in a little hole and I have my little...
Of course, you can't see here,
but I have these little furry feet-hands or hand-feet.
He's just gonna be chatting to Thor about orgies and stuff.
You can see the level of detail they did on the face. It's just astonishing.
My favorite one was the Aztec god. He looks like a glass mosaic in his face.
He's got a suit. And then his face, hands, and feet are painted.
And the other challenge was Dionysus.
Taika wanted Dionysus to look like a marble statue.
I was, like, "Oh. How are we gonna do that?"
because they'd never done it on a movie before.
So, we said, "Okay, let's try to do it."
We gave him a beard and he looked like, with all these cracks from the marble,
and we made him like a...
I hope he was gonna love it, because it was perfect.
Two things.
Number one.
I am so sorry to hear of the death of your father.
Number two...
Don't talk back to Zeus!
Zeus is a very powerful character in the comics.
Someone that goes back with Thor a long way.
He's one of the most powerful gods.
And so, if you're gonna introduce Zeus,
you need to introduce someone who can walk those shoes.
You! You are also uninvited to the orgy.
In fact,
all the emotion gods are banned. Okay?
I've had enough. You're too much hard work.
Zeus, please, you must do something.
My word is final!
Zeus, you must listen to us.
Okay.
Russell Crowe came in to play Zeus, and I am a massive Russell Crowe fan,
and he's now become a friend, and he's really funny.
He allowed himself to enjoy that role and to have fun doing it.
I just never thought I'd never see the day with him,
sort of semi-gladiator kind of imagery,
yet just with a wink and totally taking the piss out of himself.
And self-deprecating and didn't hold back either.
Which was mind-blowing, you know. It was fantastic.
I think we're so used to him in these very strong, heroic roles.
So it's fun to see him be able to let loose.
My hero, Zeus...
afraid.
(GODS GASP)
THOMPSON: I never thought I would see Russell Crowe in a tennis skirt.
That's been a real joy. It's been real nice to see.
Like, I... Sometimes he walks past my trailer in the tennis skirt.
And his perfectly curled, coifed hair.
Basically, they did a really fantastic job outfitting Russell.
What about the others? Eh?
Russell said, "You guys are gonna be too busy to look after me.
"So, let's make it easy. Let's choose my own hair and my own beard."
And we ended up using it, because he had really long hair and a really long beard.
So, what we did is, we styled that.
I made all these curls and fixed it to make sure it stay all day.
And it looked great. He was a great Zeus.
Yes!
(GODS CHEERING)
ZEUS: Zeus!
Yes! Thunderbolt!
(WHOOPING)
This is the hero Thunderbolt, which...
This went through many design iterations.
We have two different sizes, depending on the character who's using it.
We have multiple finishes.
We have foam, soft, cut-off ones
for when they're doing action and they can't actually throw this at all.
Can we just have the...
Bill? Can we just have the short? I don't want him to poke himself.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
No. It's getting better, so we might not need it.
That's a good thing.
WILSON: We have a magnetic version.
So the actors can strap it to their back with a magnetic plate.
This prop is a very multi-use lightning bolt
which took a lot of consideration to figure out all its forms,
including one where the entire lightning bolt lights up from the inside.
Ding! If you look in closely, you can see some of the pixels.
But it's just not quite as dotty as the normal stuff that you come across.
WILSON: The action of this prop, when they use it, it turns into lightning.
For us, it's been a feat where we're creating a lot of props that are soft.
Soft enough that the stunt people can use them,
because most of the action, when it's meant to light up, occurs during stunts.
MAN: On go. And three, two, one, go!
(ALL GRUNTING)
WILSON: We'll cast it out of a softer silicon that we can, or rubber,
or sometimes even a foam,
and then inside is a strip of LEDs that is remotely operated,
so that the silicon prop can light up,
and they can use an actual lit version of this prop while they're fighting on set.
Lead your army to that axe.
We shall do our worst.
(YELLING)
-Yeah, so I pull... -Remember the... About the...
CHAPEK: There are so many amazing looks in this movie,
and I think that's a big opportunity for us in these Thor films,
is to see Thor evolve,
not only as a character, but his looks.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-All right. -MAN: Walk back.
SILVI: New thing that we did,
he takes all his clothes off, and you find him completely naked,
and he's got his back covered in tattoos.
And he's got all these tattoos that he did after Loki died, his brother.
It's almost too perfect.
This will feel a little bit more like,
jail type that's been done by a bunch of different people.
SILVI: Some of them have been designed by Taika.
Literally drawn.
It was cool. It was nice just to...
I think, again, you have to do something different.
Flick.
You flicked too hard, damn it!
There are more costume changes in this than I think I've had
in the last six films combined.
MAN: Up there, please.
HEMSWORTH: All the montage stuff, all the flashbacks.
MAN: Stand by to shoot, please. Ready, ready.
This is not acceptable behavior. You wear whatever you want.
However, don't come complaining to me when your feet get sore.
You'll get no sympathy from me.
(LAUGHING)
I don't like all of them,
as far as comfort goes, but this is actually really good.
It's got this wetsuit material in here.
Sometimes, that's real hard plastic, and it chews your arm apart.
-How does it feel to be back in the armor? -That's what I just said, Dan.
Due to Thor's uncertainty in who he is and searching for his identity...
(CHUCKLES) that's represented in his wardrobe as well.
-Keep pushing. -(LAUGHS)
Feels good to be back in the suit.
(EXHALES) Just burning a few calories.
Nothing. Nothing holds him back.
(GRUNTING)
-Okay -Here? Yeah.
RUBEO: I think we should do inhale, exhale.
-Like expand the... -MAN: Yeah, expand...
Yeah, I just... I'm... Each time I'm expanding, I'm doing...
WOMAN: Okay, yeah. Take a deep breath. So 40...
I should know how many costumes I've made for Thor, but I really lost track of it.
Right, how many changes do we have in this movie? 20...
MAN: Twenty-four.
Twenty-four different clothing outfit changes.
We have, for instance, five main changes. One of them being extreme Thor.
His looks progressively get bigger and more bold,
and when The Mighty Thor enters his life,
he has to take on his most extreme look yet,
and so he dons this amazing, over-the-top armor.
Head to toe in gold and blue.
Really kind of harkening back to the original comics
where they didn't hold back in terms of the fun and the colors.
Why are we taking this helmet off?
With the gold helmet, it's this narrative that
Thor, maybe, has gone a little too far in his costume because of those insecurities.
And it's that kind of storytelling that we're trying to convey in our designs.
-Jane? -(ALL LAUGHING)
What is...
Chris Hemsworth is very involved in terms of functionality.
We have to ensure...
(CACKLES)
...that he has an armor that he can manage
in all the very intense actions that he goes through the movie.
-Yeah. -Maybe in the Bifrost, it's just gone.
Maybe everything will be ripped off and you come into this place naked.
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, let's do that.
THOMPSON: I think the most rewarding part of working with Chris on this film
has been how big he is now.
I'm like, "How did you do it?"
I thought when we made the last movie,
that he was the largest human that I have spent time with.
And now he's bigger than that.
WINDERBAUM: He was in a otherworldly physique when he showed up to set.
The most insane shape you've ever seen.
THOMPSON: It really is inspiring because he just works really, really hard.
HEMSWORTH: Each time I've played the character
and put the muscle on and put the size on,
and then lost it for something else and played another character,
there's muscle memory, and I used to say it sort of got easier each time.
Push!
This was particularly hard.
I think because the target weight we aimed for was...
quite a ways above where I'd been before.
We had 12 months when I was at home, just training
and sort of, you know, puppeteering the body and manipulating
and trying to like, we could try more swimming now or try more martial arts.
It was a really fun exploration,
but I don't know that I wanna get that big again.
-Let me see what... -I told you, though, no more secrets.
But I was sort of...
It was... Yeah, it was just exhausting.
I don't know, maybe I'm getting old, but things just started to hurt more.
GARDINER: A lot of difficulties too
because to carry that sort of size,
the physics of things changes.
So the action has to progress with it.
You just have to adapt and...
It's just making sure the range of motion is still good and things like that.
BALE: Talking with Chris as Thor,
I remember thinking that he must be on a few steps above me
and then realizing, no, we're on the same level.
And I was still doing that...
And ridiculously good guy and absolutely fantastic at this.
And so much easier to play the villain than it is to play the hero.
I had the easy role.
Yeah, Chris had the tough role.
PORTMAN: It's just incredible to watch Chris' talent.
He's just so agile
with moving from serious scenes to, of course, extreme comedy.
Great to meet you.
We've met before, but, okay.
Great to...
Oh, I see.
What a lot of people said about the first time is that it was so fast
that a lot of people didn't even know we were in the movie.
-Can you guys shut up? -(DAMON AND LUKE LAUGHING)
I'm trying to prepare for my scene.
Dear Thor, son of Odin,
may you maketh the shooteth and dayeth wonderful and positiveth.
He has such a quick brain for
changing things, assimilating information,
reacting in a creative way,
coming up with new ideas.
Can you see me?
Yes, I can see you. But where's the rest of your body?
Did he cut off your head?
PORTMAN: I always have to remind myself that I have to act in the scene
and I can't just be an audience.
-Let's go. -THOMPSON: You don't ha...
Getting to see someone who's played a character for so long,
but is constantly reimagining what this character can be
is exquisite to work alongside,
with someone that cares so much about what they do
and cares so much about a character,
and is brave enough to try things and see what sticks.
(YELLING)
(YELLS)
This is the Stormbreaker.
This is the muscle-showing one.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Actor unit.
I'm an artist, stay away from me.
This would be one that we give to Chris
when we want him to have that real powerful, godly look about him.
But some of the action requires it to be much lighter,
so then we'll have this version.
Much lighter weight, but...
photo-real.
Almost identical,
which is quite a feat.
And we have some very talented painters here
who are able to pretty much turn any material
into something that looks amazing.
As you can see, this is rubber, but it looks just like metal.
IDOINE: We've had a few location shoots on Thor: Love and Thunder.
Obviously, New Asgard behind me
is an exterior location for day and night work.
We also did some great exterior day work down at Little Bay
at a golf course just south of the city in Sydney.
And it was on some cliffs
so we had phenomenal water and winds blowing in.
Join me or die.
-Never! -We will never join you, witch.
It was challenging with the wind.
Shooting with large lighting units or camera cranes
or different aerial things that need to get up and not be affected by the wind.
It was ultimately absolutely rewarding
because it was a beautiful quality of light.
MORRISON: On any given day, we're shooting five completely different worlds.
And 150 feet away, on a patch of sand,
Christian Bale is nursing his daughter as she passes...
It's like, literally, the stuff that we're doing,
it couldn't be more different.
And what we're doing... So what are we doing?
What are we doing today? Well, we're...
This is a flashback.
Basically, this is the origin story of Gorr, the villain.
Not that, but this is just here for the camera.
CHAPEK: I think the Thor franchise has a history of
producing some pretty interesting villains.
THOR: Why have you done this?
To prove to Father that I am a worthy son.
CHAPEK: Loki is one of our best.
Hela is one of our best.
So it was very important for us to introduce
another terrifying villain,
and we found that in Gorr, the God Butcher.
He has a big history with Thor in the comics.
MAN: And Gorr.
WAITITI: Christian is someone I've admired for many, many years.
Obviously, he's one of the greatest,
I think, possibly the greatest actor that's working at the moment.
(SNIFFLES)
Someone I've always imagined...
Well, hoped I would get to work with.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
When we talked about villains,
they were only a few names that we threw about,
and his was at the top of that list pretty early on.
My love.
WAITITI: I think, for him, he's done everything, and...
I think this film feels a little different for him.
(SOBBING)
I've missed you so much.
HEMSWORTH: He's just so talented.
I've worked with so many people,
I've been so lucky to work with so many brilliant performers, and then,
every now and again, you sort of...
Someone just... It's like a slap in the face.
He added so many more layers to it
and depth to it, which then,
just made me think even harder about,
okay, what is Thor's point of view here
besides just marching off to save the day,
and it not being as simple as the villain and the hero.
It was a lot more complex than that.
Protect her.
You're supposed to hate the villain, but...
Uh...
I'm kind of team Gorr.
I think that you're gonna be right there and then I'll cradle your head.
THOMPSON: He does that thing that I think Marvel villains do so well.
The thing that Stan Lee understood
that your villainry comes from pain,
comes from some trauma that you haven't processed.
I know your pain.
Love is pain.
THOMPSON: It makes him,
in a way,
a villain that you have sympathy for.
He could stand to
work on his dental hygiene.
That aside, he's brilliant.
FEIGE: Gorr the God Butcher has an awesome look in the comics.
We wanted to tap into that.
But had we done exactly that translation,
we would've lost all of Christian.
So we made the decision early on
that we didn't want him to be a motion capture character.
There are incredible ways of doing that,
but with this particular actor in this particular character,
Taika really believed,
rightfully so, that we could achieve that with makeup.
JOHANSEN: It was a challenging makeup.
We're so lucky we had Christian, who was, you know,
always just so focused on the makeup,
always wanted everything to be just right.
Would you come here closer? Yeah, close as you can get.
And you can go higher. Going up higher?
Oh, yeah.
CHAPEK: He just immediately took the charge
and said that I know who this character is
down to the tiny details of the length of his fingernails,
just how scary he is,
color of the practical paint we gave him,
the scars and these amazing tattoos
indicative and representative of his past.
He's totally covered from
shoulder to hands, chest, down his back.
It's three and a half hours.
Yep, so...
Christian comes in, we do a fresh shave...
First up, skin prep.
Head shave, arm shave, pit shave,
face shave,
and then it's, yeah, straight into coloration
and laying down all the different...
The tattoos go on first
and the scarification goes over the top of that.
And the full paint job over the top.
BALE: Despite the fact that me just going,
"I am exhausted getting up at these hours,"
it was a great time to just get into the headspace.
MAN: And action.
Hey. Is that the Necrosword?
That's cool. I've only ever read about it in stories.
What's a Necrosword?
It's an ancient weapon that's been passed through hands since the dawn of time.
It has the ability to slay gods.
WILSON: This is the Gorr hero Necrosword.
Designing this, we did a lot of research into the comic books
and the sword that he traditionally might've had in the Marvel universe.
-(BLADE PLUNGES) -(GASPING)
We presented probably 20 designs of swords,
and it came down to what Taika envisioned for this character,
and this is where we landed.
Lots of little bits that we have to get,
including establishing this Necrosword
and Gorr being infected by the Necrosword.
RAPU: The sword chose you.
You are now cursed!
Funny.
It doesn't feel like a curse.
WILSON: Once we land on a design, we have someone 3D model it
and then, they will output a version that is aluminum.
So this one...
It's got a solid tip and it's a little bit heavier.
You can... Feels like a real...
You know, it's got a good weight to the sword.
And then this one, they...
Basically, they mold it and cast it out of rubber.
It still has an armature inside,
but you'll see that it's flexible and bendy.
Do we need one more?
MAN: Yeah.
WAITITI: Different pose with the sword.
Yeah, get the strong sword, eh?
All of Christian's shadow demons that he makes, he conjures up...
When I was writing the script, my daughter was...
looking over my shoulders, and she's...
I was writing down ideas for monsters,
and I didn't really know what they might be
and I wrote down "shadow monster."
And she goes, "What's a shadow monster?" and I was like, "I have no idea."
I was writing something and she goes,
"What's it look like?" I was like, "I don't know."
So she goes, "We should draw something."
I went, "Yeah, yeah." And so she drew...
just this weird, freaky, snake-like creature
with a giant mouth and three eyes, and it was covered in spikes.
Then I had this idea, what if we got the visual development artists
to take kids' drawings of what they think is scary
and turn them into real...
monsters, and put those in the film?
And so that's what we did.
So all of our kids just basically,
drew pictures and we've designed...
all of the monsters around those drawings.
So, even that stuff was insane and...
I mean, on paper, it just shouldn't work.
MAN: It's a family affair for everybody's kids, it's so cute.
He refused to be in the scene with me as Gorr
'cause he said it was too...
It will give him nightmares.
MAN 2: Let's roll cameras, please.
ROBINSON: The Moon of Shame is one of my favorite sequences in the movie
because we get this amazing fight sequence.
It's like... utter disconnect.
I think that... You know, how do you reinvent fight sequences in the MCU?
How do you create something that people haven't seen before?
And you play with zero-G.
You play with a really small moon
and a bunch of heroes and a bunch of shadow monsters,
and also everything is topsy turvy and turning upside down.
-(YELLING) -(GRUNTS)
GARDINER: We always like to try and reinvent the wheel,
but sometimes it's not possible,
but you like to push the boundaries.
(LAUGHS)
Somebody's gonna come on down there, but we're not going.
GARDINER: But it has to fit in with the story.
I think it's always, with Taika,
very character-driven and story-driven.
It's not action for the sake of action.
We always try to design things that keeps the story moving forward
and the characters moving forward.
So I think a lot of it was there.
MAN: Go!
GARDINER: The anti-gravity sequence on Moon of Shame
and the lighting rig they used for that sequence is pretty special.
I think the single biggest challenge
from a creative and technical point of view will probably be the lighting.
If you bake the lighting in,
if you make a very strong choice on an actor
and you put the lighting on them from a particular angle, that's all it is.
That drives a lot of the reasons why many
films that you see
will often have...
slightly non-committal lighting.
Because you don't know quite when that shot's gonna be used in the edit.
And that's true, dramatically,
and it's incredibly true when it comes to action sequences.
When Taika told me that he wanted to shoot this Moon of Shame piece...
The Moon of Shame is an embarrassingly small asteroid.
It's kind of... What I would describe it as.
Like you had some popcorn just after eating chewing gum.
It's just like this wad of horrible stuff that's just stuck in space.
But the crazy thing about the Moon of Shame
is that one day is six minutes.
So, from dawn to dawn again, it's six minutes.
So when you stick actors there, the light's gotta move.
You've got this continuing cycle,
so it's spinning and spinning, the backgrounds are wheeling.
There's all sorts of craziness.
So I was trying to work out how we could find a way to
be able to shoot with strong directional, interesting light,
but also maintain the creative freedom that we needed later on
to be able to actually stitch all this together.
'Cause you think the shot goes there in continuity,
it's actually going there.
Films change an awful lot when you get into post.
So we roped in our friends from Satellite Labs
and we found an application for this new technology called PlateLight.
This is the largest scale version of PlateLight that we've built.
And it's the first time in cinema history it's been used.
Lighting with one.
Keeps playing, that's lighting with two.
PlateLight is a way of filming multiple lighting looks all at the same time
on the same camera.
But out of the camera,
we get each lighting look as a separate piece of footage.
WAITITI: At the end of the day,
I can choose the lighting in postproduction that I want.
So I can blend lighting, I can color time it.
I can have all of the lights behind them, or all of that in front of them.
We get to make that decision later on.
So it's pretty new and amazing,
and no one has done it before in a film.
And so I'm excited about it. Okay?
ROBINSON: I think the biggest challenge in writing a script like this,
from writing Love and Thunder specifically,
has just been wanting to balance the tone.
Obviously, there's a serious nature to it because kids have been taken.
(CHILDREN SCREAMING)
But also, it's a Taika Waititi movie.
(GOATS SCREAMING)
And it's really, really fun.
We got to bring back one of my favorite things from Ragnarok,
which is the play.
DAMON: We were trying to one-up the thing we did last time.
-Transform! -Transform!
-We had a ball. It was really, really fun. -It was so fun.
-Hopefully, people will dig it. -Yeah.
There's a lot of good energy on the set.
A lot of people having a great time and making a great movie.
It was a lot of fun with Melissa.
Hello!
This feels right. And also, people are always mistaking me for Cate...
Blanchett. So, I was like,
"I don't know if they'll get the joke."
Impossible!
(GRUNTS)
I broke your hammer!
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I know, Groot, but we can't play the distress signal
'til you find the damn remote.
I didn't think there could be two Thors at the same time.
I thought you must've retired.
It's always really fun working with Taika. He's like...
entertaining on and off camera.
-(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) -(LAUGHS)
Good energy, and it keeps everything really
loose and silly and fun, and...
I don't know how he has the energy for it.
It feels really rewarding, and it's been really exciting to get to come back
with a completely different lens on the same sort of world.
It's definitely been a really fun, happy set.
Everyone's been laughing a lot
and enjoying each other.
THOMPSON: We're just playing. And as the name would suggest,
I think it's a movie that centers love,
in a way that you don't always have room for in films like this.
You made me worthy.
So whatever you wanna do, we can do together.
THOMPSON: I think, to see characters evolve, and change and grow,
it's beautiful.
I think, if anything, we just had to make sure
that we stuck to the story and the intention of the story
and didn't veer off into no-man's-land of comedy,
and just made a ridiculous film.
The lever will shake, but then you gotta keep the shaft...
We just kind of check ourselves a lot.
We have to remind ourselves that, yeah, we also want
the audience to go on a journey and to be able to laugh and also cry.
HEMSWORTH: It's just a constant exploration.
I think there was such a pride and sense of accomplishment
in what we were achieving, and what we were aiming for.
Three, two, one, bang!
HEMSWORTH: Shooting each other ideas,
and you're running on adrenaline a lot of the time,
but I love it.
I have loved every single time I've played the character.
This is ten years for most of us now,
and maybe the last time I play the character.
I certainly was aware of that while shooting.
This has been an incredible shoot.
If this was the last one, this is incredibly fitting
to finish here in Australia.
It really is so, so special to be able to do this at all.
Please say it's not the last movie.
(ALL LAUGHING)
We'll talk to Marvel about that, Son.
I love you all so much. Thank you, Taika,
for leading the charge from day one.
These films are never easy.
They're just exhausting for everybody,
but everything that everyone puts in is just beyond belief,
and I'm beyond thankful for the opportunity.
And thank you all so much. I love you all.
I think you never feel like you have enough time.
It's a ticking clock, and it ain't gonna quit, you know.
Ten years and nothing is quite as it seems.
But now, it's like, who knows what's gonna happen.
-Drop the hammer. I'm out! -(SCREAMING)
-THOR: What are you doing? -She's taking minutes.
Precious minutes we don't have.
Jane?
Couldn't find 'em.