Taika Waititi confirms Lena Headey was cut from ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’

Thor: Love and Thunder is finally out and facing a surprisingly frosty reception from Marvel fans. Hopes were high that this would be the equal of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, though most have judged it as the lesser movie. Nonetheless, it’s still a very fun ride through the weirder corners of the MCU, and, at a relatively brief two hours, it speeds through its plot.

However, Waititi has now confirmed he cut some key roles from the movie that’ll have fans gnashing their teeth at what could have been. In an interview with Insider, he discussed how painful it was to cut scenes and actors:

“I wrote the thing so when you cut anything it’s a little bit of a challenge to yourself because you’re like, “Am I not that good? Should I have seen this coming?” But every film I’ve done I’ve probably cut the same amount out. When you go into the edit you just never know. A scene on its own could be the most funniest thing or intriguing thing, but sometimes those things if you keep them in will just make the movie screech to a halt. So you have to do what’s best for the film.”

He then went into who was cut from the movie, confirming what we’d already heard from other sources:

“And if you ask any of those actors who were cut out — Jeff Goldblum, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage — they all understand how it works. They have been in the game long enough. But that’s just the way I look at things.”

Goldblum and Dinklage would have reprised their MCU roles of the Grandmaster and Eitri, respectively (and would have fallen victim to Gorr), though we don’t know who Headey would have played. Fan speculation is that she’d have played Amora the Enchantress or a valkyrie (perhaps one of Valkyrie’s former squeezes?).

This also sheds a little more light on Headey being sued for $1.5 million by her former talent agency. They allege she owes them unpaid commission fees, which includes Thor: Love and Thunder, even though she didn’t make the final cut. Having your MCU debut end up on the cutting room floor and getting sued over it sounds like the worst-case scenario, so here’s hoping Headey gets some good news soon.

Thor: Love and Thunder is now in theaters.