Taika Waititi was a strange choice to helm Thor: Ragnarok, as the indie filmmaker had only previously made small-scale movies in his native New Zealand prior to landing the coveted Marvel job. However, the gamble paid off handsomely as Waititi proved to be the perfect person to relaunch the God of Thunder’s franchise in a fun, fresh way. As such, it feels like a question of when rather than if he’ll work with Marvel again.
One movie that fans have often called for Waititi to helm is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is currently in a director-less limbo following James Gunn’s dismissal by Disney. The filmmaker has confirmed that he’s definitely not interested in taking over the reins of the Guardians franchise though, out of respect for Gunn.
Still, while speaking at the TCA winter tour today, Waititi was asked once again if he’d ever talked to Marvel about replacing Gunn on Vol. 3 and revealed that it’s just not something he’s interested in. To explain why, he came up with a hilarious simile for why the situation made him feel “awkward.”
“I didn’t, really. For me, those are James (Gunn)’s films. Going into something like that with his stamp all over his films, would be like going into someone’s house and saying ‘Hey, I’m your new dad, and this is how we make peanut butter sandwiches now.’ It feels kind of awkward. However I’m still hanging out with those guys (Marvel) and talking about new stuff.”
We previously guessed that this was Waititi’s feeling on the matter, as he recently joined in on a Twitter conversation between Edgar Wright and Chris Miller, in which all three directors made clear that they feel that Gunn would be the best fit to close the Guardians trilogy that he started.
As for what other Marvel project Waititi could be a good choice for, any other cosmic comedy caper would definitely fit his skillset. There are expected to be many more space-set movies to come in the MCU, too, so the director could have his pick of many in time. Failing that, there’s always hope for a Thor 4.
Meanwhile, for Marvel, the hunt for a suitable replacement for Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 continues.