‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ screaming goats were inspired by a Taylor Swift meme

Taika Waititi is an eccentric director whose creative muse befuddles even the greatest veterans of the cinematic stage, so there’s really no point in asking where he gets his influences from, as they may be too great in number and too different in context to make any sense out of. That said, if you’ve nevertheless found yourself wondering what feat of unhinged madness led the filmmaker to come up with those fan-favorite screaming goats in Thor: Love and Thunder, you’re going to be really surprised with this one.

According to what Waititi recently revealed to Insider, it was a viral Taylor Swift meme from the “I Knew You Were Trouble” video that actually lit up the director’s brain.

“They were never meant to be screaming. The goats were always going to be in there because they are in the comics, but we didn’t know how they would sound. Then someone in post-production found this meme of a Taylor Swift song that has screaming goats in it. I didn’t even know that existed. So I hear the screaming goats and I just felt it was awesome. A lot of people think it’s me screaming. It’s not.

“I think one of the vendors that was making the CG goats, they just added the Taylor Swift song ‘I Knew You Were Trouble,’ but the fan-made one with the goat sounds, and we just thought it was so funny. So it was just a shot of how the CG creatures were coming along, it wasn’t meant for the film or anything, it was just an update. And the screams were freakin’ awesome.”

The meme in question made the rounds when the music video for “I Knew You Were Trouble” came out. As the beat is about to drop after Taylor sings “now I’m lying on the cold hard ground,” the video cuts to a yelling goat. Taylor Swift herself found the meme hilarious, calling the whole experience an “out of left field” experience.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently playing in theaters. So, if you’ve always had this dream of seeing Thor’s mythological goats bellowing out a high-pitched scream, Taika Waititi’s flick will definitely be your cup of tea.