Thor: Love and Thunder is one of the MCU's shortest films up to date, however, Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth recently confirmed the existence of a discarded 4-hour-long cut of the movie that took jokes to next level, though it wasn’t particularly good according to both men.
While it’s possible some of the unreleased footage will eventually make it to Thor: Love and Thunder's eventual Blu-ray editions, it’s really not rare for rough cuts of movies to be this long before heading to the editing room. Nevertheless, Love and Thunder seems to be caught midway between that and a proper director’s cut, with Waititi claiming it’s full of “big dumb scenes” that pretty much gave up on the film’s story.
This is one of the topics discussed by Thor: Love and Thunder's stars in an interview with Collider's Steven Weintraub, where Hemsworth defined the extended cut as “batshit crazy,” though Waititi pretty much conceded it was in fact an assembly version of the movie. In fact, Waititi is pretty confident with the end product, saying it’d be hard to pull off a proper director’s cut because he claims the film “has a strong structure” and that he wouldn’t want to go over all the footage they shot again. Hemsworth also doesn't let slide that he didn't get called for a cameo on Our Flag Means Death seeing as how he would do anything the director asked him.
Hemsworth is particularly dismissive of the 4 hours' worth of footage, saying it’s “like a Monty Python sketch” and that it pretty much sacrificed the story for jokes. It seems rather uplifting for the movie that Waititi is so happy with what they ended up making. This might mean he found the right balance between drama and humor, with only the finest jokes making the final 119-minute version of the film.
Early impressions of Thor: Love and Thunder are overwhelmingly positive, though one aspect many critics and journalists pointed out is just how emotional Love and Thunder ends up being. Considering the film will see Thor reunite with Jane Foster, a.k.a. Mighty Thor, as part of the latter's cancer story arc, it wouldn’t be that surprising to see Love and Thunder rely more on gripping elements than the very funny Ragnarok.
Love and Thunder could very well be Hemsworth's last film portraying the Asgardian god. Nonetheless, as the longest-serving Avenger in today's MCU, there's also an argument for him and Doctor Strange to gain the same status Iron Man and Captain America had during the Infinity Saga.
Thor: Love and Thunder will premiere in theaters on July 8, 2022.
Source: Collider