How crazy is Taika Waititi's superhero sequel Thor: Love and Thunder going to get? Very, by the sounds of it.
How crazy is Taika Waititi's superhero sequel Thor: Love and Thunder going to get? Very, by the sounds of it.
Sam Neill has jumped the Tasman to join fellow Hollywood megastars in Taika Waititi's upcoming Marvel sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder.
But with the mind-bending tricks of director Waititi, nothing is as it seems.
Whereas the movie is about Norse Gods, Neill again stars as an actor who is onlyportraying one in a stage play set within the movie, just as he did in his well-received cameo in Waititi's 2017 blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok.
In Ragnarok, Neill starred as an actor playing Thor's father, Odin, alongside Matt Damon playing Odin's son Loki, and Luke Hemsworth playing Thor in a play being enjoyed by other characters in the movie. Hemsworth's brother Chris stars as the actual Thor in the film.
Sam Neill as Fauzdin in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). He will return to the role in sequel Thor: Love and Thunder.
Waititi joked to the Radio Times about the cameos in an interview supporting the movie in 2017.
"It's the first film since Jurassic Park that Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill have both appeared in the same movie. This is cross-universe stuff here."
This was before Goldblum, who played The Grandmaster in Ragnarok, had announced that he'd be reuniting with Neill in the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion. This anticipated movie was filmed in England last year with Chris Pratt starring. By the way, Pratt will also star in Thor: Love and Thunder as his Marvel character Star-Lord.
In 2017 Neill told Collider he was baffled by his sequence and which actor was playing what in Ragnarok. This parallel universe of plays and characters seems to have come back to life in Love and Thunder and looks like Waititi will be playing up the original sequence to full effect.
Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Taika Waititi on the set of Thor: Ragnarok. Photo: Instagram
Damon, who has also been in Sydney filming his role in Love and Thunder for some months, was not credited for his cameo in Ragnarok. However this time iMDB includes both Damon and Neill in the credits for Love and Thunder.
Damon is listed as "Actor Loki", Neill as "Actor Odin" and Luke Hemsworth as "Actor Thor". An interesting addition is that comedian Melissa McCarthy is cast as "Actor Hela", a nod to Cate Blanchett's character, Hela, in Ragnarok.
Blanchett and Loki actor Tom Hiddleston are notably absent from the casting, leading to fan theories and speculation that the play sequence might translate into a space warp of character realities throughout the movie.
We can't wait to see how Waititi will weave it all together, and we're not the only ones. The movie is being eagerly anticipated in the Marvel fan universe.
