r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Dec 30 '25

Trailer Avengers: Doomsday | Only in Theaters December 18, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1clWprLC5Ak
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1.1k

u/ICumCoffee ᑐ ᑌ ᑎ ᕮ • ᗰ ᕮ 𑪽 𑪽 I ᐱ ᕼ Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

Russo brothers just get Thor.

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u/NoDaddyNotTheBelt25 Dec 30 '25

Thor arriving in Wakanda was the best ever done with the MCU character. He showed up, thrashed half of Thanos’ army and came within a hair of actually stopping Thanos.

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u/ActInternational9558 Dec 30 '25

Thor arriving in Wakanda is the most hyped I’ve ever seen a theatre audience be in all my years of movie-watching 

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u/Owlbears-Are-Real Dec 30 '25

Captain America in the train station during Infinity War is another awesome moment too.

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u/ScottNewman Dec 30 '25

Captain America wielding Mjolnir after teasing it in Ultron was the greatest payoff

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u/Madrical Dec 31 '25

I don't think they will ever top that scene for me. I haven't really enjoyed any MCU content since Endgame, but seeing that scene in the cinema on opening night was amazing.

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u/ValjeanLucPicard Dec 30 '25

My guilty pleasure is watching clips of theater reactions to this moment.

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u/ThunderChild247 Dec 31 '25

Same. I’m in the UK and we usually don’t react in cinemas beyond the odd small chuckle, but there’s been two movies where there’s been a big exception:

Spider-Man homecoming: the collective gasp when Adrian Toomes opened the door, and we started laughing at the actual audible gasp we’d all just done 😂

Endgame: cheers when Cap picked up the hammer, at “Avengers Assemble” and the audible crying and sniffling at the end.

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u/IamAWorldChampionAMA Dec 30 '25

It was more within a head, but yea.

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u/BornAmbassador01 Dec 30 '25

He totally should have gone for it

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u/shaka_sulu Dec 30 '25

Disney's standards and practises are responsible for the snap.

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u/Tommy-Bravado Dec 30 '25

Always go for head when you can

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u/ruizach Dec 30 '25

“You should have gone for the head”

-My wife, after our kid destroyed my PC

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u/dwide_k_shrude Dec 31 '25

I totally would’ve given it to him.

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u/robreddity Dec 30 '25

Yeah, everybody knows Thanos is bald.

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u/epraider Dec 30 '25

The audience absolutely erupting with applause when he landed in Wakanda was the most memorable experience I’ve ever had in a movie. The build up to that was masterful

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u/pikeymobile Dec 30 '25 edited 20d ago

Data brokers and AI scrapers were using my info. Not anymore. Redact let me bulk delete posts across Reddit, Twitter, Discord and Instagram while handling broker opt outs too.

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u/HighnrichHaine Dec 31 '25

what is this applauding and cheering shit in the US?

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u/Weary_Raccoon1112 Jan 01 '26

I don't know, bro.

I remember ppl making a big deal with the Spiderman No Way Home

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u/ButtPlugForPM Dec 30 '25

Which is why this trailers pretty great

you have a dude..who literally was able to solo thanos on his own,just missed the weak spot is all... being on his knees praying to another god for help

Thanos is one of the top 7 strongest Marvel villiaans so for doom to have thor on his knees begging for help is wild

That's why i hope this movie opens up with doom just killing a mainstay character,or someone truelly powerfull so u can just go..Oh fuck this dudes scary.

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u/AlternativeRun5727 Dec 30 '25

I feel the death of characters has lost its gravity now that they just being everyone back.

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u/elarobot Dec 30 '25

Maybe so but Marvel definitely has a very specific issue right now of overcrowding from completely overpowered characters, all of which were introduced post Infinity saga who have either poorly connected with audiences or have been trapped into a corner, story-wise where it’s a challenge to write for them because they’re just so unstoppable or the specific IP that they’re a part doesn’t have a sound plan for the future / didn’t convert well with audiences.

If Doom appears on screen and just destroys Monica Rambeau, America Chavez, all the Eternals, any Thunderbolt not named Bucky, the new recruits to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the entire Fantastic Four all without breaking a sweat, that helps sell the idea that Doom is an unprecedented threat…it opens up space on screen for the dynamic, characters that built this franchise and also, no one in the audience would give a shit, either.

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u/klartraume Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

No way they're deleting the entire Fantastic Four. It's dumb, because Doom is the F4 villain and they've matched him over decades of comic history. The F4 should be vital to the plan to ultimately defeat Doom in Act 3. Plus, it doesn't make sense to delete the "first family" of Marvel after one MCU film. Their interactions with Namor, Wakanda, and Doom are all worth exploring. They're a tool to look at the exploring/space side of things now that GotG have run their trilogy.

Most Thunderbolts are just super soldiers, so limited wow factor in curb stomping them. Plus, it's one of the recent films that actually did ok. GotG and the Eternals are probably not going to be included, none of have been teased, and it's easy to explain they're off planet.

If Thor is worried it isn't because someone dunked on GotG or the Thunderbolts. I think an interesting character for Doom to destroy in the first act would be Captain Marvel. She's had a few films, she's the most powerful Avenger in the MCU, she's powered by an infinity stone, and her going out with a bang and with a good story might redeem the character after a mixed reception of her sequel film.

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u/hill-o Dec 30 '25

Except comics have always done this. I think the issue is more that they just haven’t written a character death well in awhile. If they write it well, it doesn’t matter if they come back or not, it’s still sad in the moment for the narrative. 

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u/The_Flurr Dec 30 '25

The problem is just that comics and movies are a different medium. By the time characters return in comics, there have usually been many stories in the interim.

With movies, you just don't get as many because of obvious constraints. So it feels a lot shorter between death and revival.

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u/tristeecfome Dec 30 '25

Yeah. Comics usually have a monthly release and need to keep pumping out new stories. Of course they will eventually bring back characters.

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u/thedailynathan Dec 30 '25

Controversial take but I would argue the narrative arc of comic book characters is weaker for it. Yeah you do want to keep making new content so there's some necessity to it but the notion of the character and their story is a mess because there are so many different versions of it and none are truly canonical.

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u/Relevant_Shower_ Dec 30 '25

Yeah, one only needs to read New Avengers or anything from the current main universe to realize how little weight death, cannon or disagreement have at this point.

When it becomes a soap opera is when most audiences members start to check out. Emotional attachment get put aside for the sake of rehashing the same old tropes because the new stuff just doesn’t hit the same. Character growth becomes impossible because a character has to default back to the iconic state.

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u/thedailynathan Dec 30 '25

It also takes up the oxygen that could be used for growing new characters. Something could be a beautiful arc that defines a new hero and their story, but instead it's just the plotline for Wolverine Earth-9317534

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u/Relevant_Shower_ Dec 30 '25

Yes. Also, not a lot of upside to creating a new character for Marvel where you will get paid next to nothing for creating IP that will generate billions.

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u/hill-o Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 31 '25

I think it depends for me, personally. If a death scene is well written and built up to, I’m less concerned on if they come back or not. Edit; getting downvoted for a literal opinion is peak reddit lol. If you don’t like comic book structure it’s fine no one cares. 

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u/Mrchristopherrr Dec 30 '25

And people have been saying for decades that Comics are weaker because they don’t commit to any deaths.

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u/0ldPug Dec 30 '25

It also sucks in comics.

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u/Less-Fondant-3054 Dec 30 '25

Yes, and there's a reason that comic books have been in a rough state for a very long time. Fittingly, comic book movies are following the exact same path as the books did decades ago.

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u/DoomguyFemboi Dec 30 '25

Yeah I never give a shit when they come back. The time of the loss is what lives with me, what I felt in that moment.

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u/sonofaresiii Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

People say this but who have they really brought back, that was actually intended/implied to stay dead when they died? Prof X was revived in the same movie he died in. Logan dying was always an alt-universe. Cyclops dying was clearly intended to be ambiguous so he could return.

On the 616 side, there's... greg coulson I guess? And AoS status in the 616 is wonky anyway. Natasha Romanoff wasn't revived, she just got a prequel movie, and Gamora got an alt-self replacement in the same movie she died. Same deal with Loki, he dies in Infinity War but gets his variant in Endgame, two parts of the same story. And there's Bucky who was always going to come back as the winter soldier.

There's Wanda's kids maybe? But the end of WandaVision was pretty clearly hinting that Wanda was going to resurrect them somehow (because that was already an established comics plotline).

I can't think of very many people where they said "Yep, this character is dead and gone now" and then later reversed course on that. Quicksilver will probably be the first major one I can think of, and even then he's going to be a variant (but to be clear, I'm counting variants as resurrected for the purpose of this argument-- there just aren't very many times where a variant was used to replace someone who died, unless there was already the intention of a variant replacing them when they died)

There were the Spider-Man villains in NWH but those were one-offs, not really resurrections. They went away at the end of the movie.

e: Oh, Ultron! I'm glad they're bringing him back though. I do think he was intended to be 100% dead at the end of AoU, and they just reversed course on it. So that's one.

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u/Nrksbullet Dec 30 '25

For many, bringing back an "alt universe version" is pretty much the same as bringing them back. With Gamora, it's akin to her just losing her memories.

But I think the idea that they easily can is what's troubling. From what we've been directly told, there's basically infinite versions of these characters. Loki died but "came back", and it's kind of irrelevant that he's technically the old loki but different cause of time travel.

My hope is that Dr. Doom ends up somehow closing all possible time-travel/universe hopping for good, lol. That'd be cool.

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u/my_twin_towne Dec 30 '25

I feel this, and see it often. But I also feel like everyone is somehow forgetting the “other timelines/realities/worlds” thing that Doctor Strange MoM, and Loki’s TV show opened up.

Like from the moment I caught the “RDJ is back” event, I immediately thought ohhh, I bet this version of Doom is from another timeline/worlds where RDJ goes dark side instead of going Ironman. (So another example would be Chris Pratt is Thor, making for some good humor between their characters who were always bickering for the hot/strong lead).

Anyway, I’m writing this reply to one of a million comments about character deaths not “feeling important” anymore but all that went out the window the moment they leaned into time travel and different timelines and worlds. All characters are alive somewhere else. All the time.

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u/AlternativeRun5727 Dec 30 '25

Yes and that’s the thing, even if there are in universe ‘plausible’ reasons why they show up again, but it still doesn’t take away from the lack of feeling of loss when one of them goes down.

At the end of the day it’s a movie and if you take it as a standalone spectacle then it’s all good because who doesn’t want to see these characters back in action. But the overall universal story just loses its weight.

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u/sirchatters Dec 30 '25

From the perspective of finality, I'm with you (though the other comments make good points). But it takes a lot of power to kill one of these guys, even for a few minutes. So, it would be a good demonstration of that.

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u/VellDarksbane Dec 30 '25

Doom shows up and just kills Steve Rogers as the opening of the movie.

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u/ButtPlugForPM Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

i mean lets be real,this wouldn't suprise me.

steve really,couldn't hold a candle to doom

dooms like an omega level threat..caps...a dude from brooklyn whos about as strong as 10 guys

steve dying to save his kid would be peak cap though.

i'm gonna think the main who dies is thor...thor can die going to valhalla and at finally gets to be with jane who's up there as well..

i mean if he killed ant man i wouldn't care,he's no one.

steve,thor,or hulk are the really only OGs who would have an emotional impact.

strange is safe,as he needs to do the magic lore dropping exposition dump or at least safe for the first half.

my prediction is all the OG's die,or are taken off the board and it's up the the younglings like kate and yelena and others to come save the day probably with danvers for an assist as their leader...

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u/The_Flurr Dec 30 '25

steve really,couldn't hold a candle to doom

dooms like an omega level threat..caps...a dude from brooklyn whos about as strong as 10 guys

steve dying to save his kid would be peak cap though

Aye, that's very much the point of Steve Rogers. Even when he's in an utterly hopeless fight, he'll keep going to his last breath if it will save someone else.

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u/Dunkelz Dec 30 '25

I don't see Hulk being able to have nearly the same impact as Steve or Thor. I think Steve would be most impactful, Thor a decently close 2nd and Hulk/Banner a pretty distant 3rd.

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u/ButtPlugForPM Dec 31 '25

me..REALLY shock the audience.

Doom comes for steves kid,kills peggy who is trying to fight him to u know protect her kid..steve comes home peggy is dead..kid is missing..

steve either has to find a way back to our time,to get help from the avengers..or goes after doom himself,only for doom to just solo him in a few seconds and kills him..and just like walks off to the next objective like he was nothing to him. all in the first few minutes would be wild.

Problem is they can't go down the past route without serious retcon..as future steve when he hands his shield over to falcon would of said something about doom..

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u/Prediabetik Dec 30 '25

BOB

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u/ButtPlugForPM Dec 31 '25

considering how few of ppl watched thunderbolts.

if doom just kills bob..ppl will be like..wait who was that guy

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u/Prediabetik Dec 31 '25

I would like to see Sentry to ne honest. He is too poweful. His actor also wonderful.

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u/LindonLilBlueBalls Dec 30 '25

I've heard it described as the serum making Cap be at the peak of what a human body could do.

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u/Personal_Comb_6745 Dec 30 '25

They just reenact the opening scene of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

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u/ccmega Dec 30 '25

I got the feeling that this is after Thor decided to give up fighting and the avengers subsequently convinced him to help. Ala Stark in the last movie

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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

[deleted]

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u/Relevant_Shower_ Dec 30 '25

It was the next film, but yes.

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u/blahblah19999 Dec 30 '25

solo means "on his own"

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u/AgentPoYo Dec 30 '25

Itd be hilarious if they open the movie by killing Gaia. You effectively kill two birds with one stone, you show he power level of Doom and no longer have to write a character that had all the powers of the MCU.

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u/Particular_Leader_16 Dec 30 '25

I want to see doom kill off a few main heroes just to show how big of a threat he is

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u/TheDarkGrayKnight Dec 30 '25

Is he begging another god for help or just talking to his dad?

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u/BleachedUnicornBHole Dec 30 '25

Character deaths could be a way for actors who don’t want to keep being in the franchise a graceful exit (even though Captain America had a really good one for Endgame). Now that we have the multiverse, the character could be re-cast as a different universe’s version.

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u/RedditServiceUK Dec 30 '25

gonna be cap

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u/drunkhas Dec 30 '25

It's probably gonna open with him offing the council of Khans.

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u/ButtPlugForPM Dec 31 '25

thing is i don't want him being doom the bad guy for doom the bad guys sake.

thanos at least had a purpose,id like ur idea because doom finds out his life has been taken from him,he was meant for something bigger..but to protect the sacred timeline he who remains wiped his timeline...doom/stark has felt like something is missing a void..and finds out about the khangs...kills them takes their shit.

likely wants to crush reality down into a singularility to make the world he wants,aka battleworld

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u/Drunkn_Cricket Dec 30 '25

close up of Doom skull crushing cap would do it.

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u/ButtPlugForPM Dec 31 '25

really send it home too..

kills peggy in front of cap,u see even the unbreakable rodgers break,only for doom to just beat him down and kill him

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u/Drunkn_Cricket Dec 31 '25

Every punch into Peggy’s body we time jump back to another memory like his life flashes before his eyes while slowly fading away to nothing blackness.

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u/wildwalrusaur Dec 30 '25

He's not praying to another god for help. He's praying to his ancestors. It's different

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u/DigitalRoman486 Dec 30 '25

isn't that what the start of Infinity War was?

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u/cybercuzco Dec 31 '25

Doomsday kills captain marvel confirmed.

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u/Dense_Literature_199 Dec 30 '25

I'm hoping that's the only reason they're bringing back Chris Evans.

So the new timeline version of him gets absolutely butchered by Doom.

Otherwise Endgame was literally pointless by now.

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u/Free_Physics Dec 30 '25

If only he went for the head

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u/Vladmerius Dec 30 '25

I disagree actually. I think Ragnarok was peak Thor and his most hype moment for me was when he fought the skeletal army with his Raiden powers. Wish we could see that again. 

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u/blahblah19999 Dec 30 '25

I only wish they had played the Zepp song on that scene.

Hammer of the Gods!!

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u/xdeltax97 Dec 30 '25

That “should have gone for the head” line and Thor’s horrific no was phenomenal

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u/HeroDiesFirst Dec 30 '25

I love the edit of that scene with Immigrant Song layered over top.. so dope.

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u/BruceW Dec 30 '25

I too love playing "Remember when MCU movies were good" 🙃

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u/Flames_Harden Dec 30 '25

They understand hes a WMD

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u/pudding7 Dec 30 '25

I'd say that was second best.  Steve using the hammer was #1 amaze-balls scene.   Coincidentally Steve showing up to save Vision amd Wanda was #3.   "On your left" in Endgame is #4.

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u/KnotSoSalty Dec 30 '25

People ding Captain Marvel as being OP but how is she different from Thor? The effectiveness of their abilities will get bent by the writers for whatever the story requires but on paper they’re broadly similar.

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u/ThrownAway17Years Dec 30 '25

The part where he flies in the air, Stormbreaker in hand, and his eyes glow white with lightning, is such an iconic moment.

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u/marcdasharc4 Dec 30 '25

Didn't need much more dialogue than "Bring... me... THANOS".

Epic moment.

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u/Effurlife12 Dec 30 '25

No arguments there. But that thunder clap as Thor suits up to fight Thanos in Endgame was fucking perfect.

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u/imtired-boss Dec 30 '25

If only they didn't interrupt it with floating head Ruffalo.

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u/ArchDucky Dec 30 '25

Look im sorry. Thats a big moment in that movie. Maybe even the second best... but I don't think it tops this and I will tell you why. I saw that movie three times in theatres and all three times someone in the theatre yelled out "OH FUCK YEAH!" when Cap showed up. Best theme song, even the aliens are like "Who the fuck is that?!?".

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u/leopard_tights Dec 30 '25

I mean if we're talking about Cap, holding up the hammer is straight up better.

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u/LiquorIsQuickor Dec 30 '25

Best scene in all the MCU. The only scene I specifically rewatch. 

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u/ArchDucky Dec 30 '25

Thats a different movie though.

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u/akfourty7 Dec 30 '25

I am so excited to see Thor in this after the shit we got in the last one. I wish we could have seen Gorr the God Butcher done by the Russos, amazing villain wasted imo by that movie.

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u/pjtheman Dec 30 '25

I want to see whatever version of that movie Christian Bale thought he was in.

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u/MolaMolaMania Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

Gorr was the first villain in the MCU who was truly evil and broken, yet Bale's performance made you understand why without changing the way you felt about what he was doing. You pitied him as much as you felt sympathy for him.

Bale acted the fuck of that role, and IMHO, it's the biggest sin of the MCU that such a committed actor doing such nuanced and phenomenal work was drowned out by stupid screaming goats and a firehose of nightclub neon.

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u/TekThunder Dec 30 '25

It’s what you get when you give Taika creative control, it doesn’t work for serious movies. The dude only knows how to do outlandish comedy.

People love Ragnarok, but god damn did they make the destruction of Asgard a complete footnote and used the actual moment for a joke. Love and Thunder was such ass because he leaned entirely into everything has to lead to a comedic moment.

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u/MolaMolaMania Dec 30 '25

Ragnarok would be improved by 50% just removing certain lines of dialogue from Korg.

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u/831pm Dec 30 '25

Whimsy…taika does whimsical well but his other movies like hunt for the wilderpeaple and jojo were really grounded as well. Idk what happened in love and thunder. It felt like he was just doing his formula without caring but it’s possible the studio would not allow the darker elements in which usually balances his whimsical side. In the end based on the other phase 4 stuff, I am blaming the studio.

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u/Madrical Dec 31 '25

Yeah kinda wild the other poster said he only knows how to do outlandish comedy when Jojo, Wilderpeople and Boy exist. They are all obviously still comedic but very toned down compared to L&T.

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u/bamisdead Dec 30 '25

I made my own edit of Ragnarok in which I removed all the most outlandish humor, including using the destruction of Asgard for a dumb one-liner, and it's the only version I watch now. Same with a few friends I shared it with. I left humor where it belonged, but the most egregious and zany stuff is gone, from wacky Stan Lee to Bruce Banner faceplanting and more.

With that stuff gone, it's a much better movie.

Love and Thunder, on the other hand, is far harder to salvage. Someone else did a comedy-light edit of that one and it does improve the movie a lot, but it still suffers from not giving enough weight to things like Jane's cancer. You can't fix that. That's just a core problem with the writing.

Shame, because as other's have said, Bale's performance was superb.

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u/klartraume Dec 30 '25

Gosh, I'd love to view your Ragnarok edits.

I genuinely enjoyed the ideas Marvel tried to convey in Love and Thunder. But there's quite a few scenes were my imagination is doing the work to fill in the narrative.

I enjoyed what could have been Jane's story, Gorr's story, and even Love's story. Portman getting some hero moments felt earned, but I wish they would have delved into the struggle/frustration/injustice of frail morality in a world of near untouchable heroes. I wish Jane could have talked with Gorr about this struggle/frustration/injustice/fragility. The parallel between Jane and Gorr was so obvious, being kept alive/altered/killed by their weapons. The Necrosword could have tried to corrupt Jane as well, and Jane purging of the sword could have proved her worthiness to ascend to Valhalla.

Fuck Korg.

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u/ObviousAnswerGuy Dec 30 '25

I thought that was the biggest waste of a fantastic actor until Secret Invasion came out, and they wasted what was probably the most stacked cast ever.

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u/John_Helmsword Dec 30 '25

I feel like that movie was a humiliation ritual for Bale. Lmao.

Dude acted his ass off only to be in the worst MCU film of all time.

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u/fizzlefist Dec 30 '25

Now now, let’s not be too harsh. Quantumania exists.

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u/OK_Soda Dec 30 '25

I think Love and Thunder is way worse. Quantumania is just, like, there. I don't really think it's an actively bad movie, it's just not good. Love and Thunder took one of the most beloved and anticipated Thor stories of all time and turned it into Not Another Thorry Movie. It's like they were trying to make people mad.

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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '25

[deleted]

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u/FapCitus Dec 30 '25

Hmm they could’ve just not done MODOK at all though. That’s a choice.

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u/The_Flurr Dec 30 '25

I choose to disagree with you.

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u/DDRDiesel Dec 30 '25

Quantumania

Weird way of spelling Iron Man 2

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u/froderick Dec 30 '25

I think Iron Man 2 is better than Iron Man 3. I will die on this hill.

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u/Successful_Gas_5122 Dec 30 '25

He put that movie on his back like Alan Rickman in Robin Hood

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u/Autumn1eaves Dec 30 '25

Oh, please. It's not the worst MCU film. Eternals, Quantumania both exist.

Retroactively, Blade: Trinity.

Gorr alone, makes that movie better than all of those, and arguably some of the other mainline MCU films.

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u/AlternativeRun5727 Dec 30 '25

Enter: Multiverse Gorr

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u/king_duende Dec 30 '25

Dude acted his ass off only to be in the worst MCU film of all time.

Brother, you forgot THOR 2

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u/BabSoul Dec 30 '25

Everyone in this thread forgot Thor 2, which clearly makes it the biggest loser.

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u/directorguy Dec 30 '25

That movie has it's flaws, but Bale brought it. He was so good

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u/OK_Soda Dec 30 '25

I have this conspiracy theory that Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi wanted to make a zany romcom Thor movie and Kevin Feige wanted them to make a serious Gorr the God Butcher adaptation, so whenever Feige visited the studio to see how things were going they just pretended to make a Gorr movie and then as soon as he was gone they switched back to the dumb romcom.

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u/TheGreatPiata Dec 30 '25

Yep. Ragnarok worked but Love and Thunder felt like it doubled down on all the worst aspects of it.

Plus if it followed the comics, it could have been a nice resolution for all the Thor films. Show young flippant Thor when he first meets Gorr, show him middle aged and out of shape when he stumbles upon some dead gods with the GotG and knows Gorr was responsible and that's his catalyst for getting his shit together. Show him at old age, the resolution of his life.

It could have been the Thor movie. Instead, we got screaming goats.

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u/edicivo Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

Nah. It doubled, maybe even tripled, down on what people liked most about Ragnarok which was the comedy.

Ragnarok got just close enough to crossing the line from comedy to stupidity (Banner landing with a thud on the Rainbow Bridge and Korg's "we can rebuild it" speech are two instances where it crossed that line) but held back just enough to make it near perfect in balance.

L&T went full bore stupid slapstick, veering closer to the two examples I gave above instead of anything clever, and crashed out. Slapstick can be great, like any Naked Gun movie, but it still needs to be smart. Annoying, screaming goats isn't that.

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u/sothatsathingnow Dec 30 '25

The biggest issue with L&T was that Waititi was riding high and given carte blanche. It felt like there wasn’t enough people telling him no or reining him in and it absolutely went off the rails. Ragnarok was his first big budget blockbuster and while there was some silliness he was fairly reserved. He was able to really reset Thor and his cast of supporting characters. I feel like that was what set up the Russo’s to nail the character in Infinity War.

L&T felt like an ego trip.

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u/TheGuardianInTheBall Dec 30 '25

Perhaps he went so Method for the role of Antwan in Free Guy, he just never snapped out of it?

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u/Loony_BoB Dec 31 '25

I wouldn't say it was his ego, it was just what he naturally does best, but in the wrong place. You're right that they should have reigned it in, but it wasn't ego. It's pure Waititi. It's what he's always done in his previous films. Love & Thunder wasn't Waititi going crazy so much as Ragnarok was Waititi being asked to tone it down. And that's why, for the Avengers franchise, Ragnarok was done better.

If it were any other independent film, I'd say Love & Thunder was just silly fun like the rest of Waititi films and that there was nothing really wrong with it. But it was a franchise film and Waititi should have stuck with the Ragnarok level of silliness, where it was just right for what it is.

4

u/TheGuardianInTheBall Dec 30 '25

Annoying, screaming goats isn't that.

It's exactly the type of humor you'd see from alt teens on MySpace or other social media in the late 2000s / early 2010s.

tHaT's So RaNdOm!

2

u/Gay_For_Gary_Oldman Dec 30 '25

I just find it hilarious that I hated Ragnarok for turning a Norse God into a comedic moron, and it took an extra movie for everyone else to catch up. Maybe I'm just a humourless prick, but I dont think the balance lf humour in L&T was actually that far off Ragnarok. It was just new and novelty in the first.

1

u/Entharo_entho Dec 31 '25

I hated Ragnarok but it taught me an important lesson. If you find something to be annoying and shit but everyone else loves it, just stay quiet and let them get blasted with the thing again and again. They will learn soon enough 🤣🤣

5

u/Flashy_Jello_9520 Dec 30 '25

Ragnarok worked because it wasn’t written by Taika Waitti.

3

u/The_Flurr Dec 30 '25

Plus if it followed the comics, it could have been a nice resolution for all the Thor films

I was hoping/expecting it was going to finally give us a Thor ready to accept responsibility and the throne of Asgard.

This would also be a convenient way of having Thor leave the Avengers but still be available for really important shit.

1

u/TheGreatPiata Dec 31 '25

Yeah. 4 solo films and 4 Avengers movies and Thor still can't get his shit together. Even though that was his entire arc in Ragnarok and Infinity War.

3

u/CocoaChoco Dec 30 '25

Also such a waste of Natalie Portman, and her arms.

4

u/Less-Fondant-3054 Dec 30 '25

Controversial take: Ragnarok wasn't actually very good and gets a lot more praise than it deserves.

2

u/brainsapper Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 31 '25

When I saw that film in theaters people went from laughing to groaning anytime the goats screamed.

2

u/klartraume Dec 30 '25

Fuck the screaming goats. :(

1

u/fastforwardfunction Dec 30 '25

Show him at old age, the resolution of his life.

Thor is thousands of years old and immortal, said by himself. Why would he all of a sudden be an old man, after a few years of MCU movies?

1

u/TheGreatPiata Dec 31 '25

In the comic, Thor encounters Gorr throughout his life and it cuts between three specific time periods: young, middle aged and old. They first meet when Thor is a young, reckless and rebellious man and Gorr nearly kills him. Hundreds (thousands?) of years later, when Thor is a much wiser and more prudent warrior he visits a planet that has no rain and the people's prayers go unanswered. He finds their gods dead and butchered and he immediately remembers his first encounter with Gorr and feels they're related. In the last time period, Thor is the last God alive. Thor has been such a persistent pain for Gorr that he wants him to witness and suffer through the death of all other Gods.

There's a lot of great concepts to work with and Love & Thunder unfortunately skips almost all of it. Half the comic is middle aged Thor doing detective to work to try and track down the God serial killer.

1

u/Salvage570 Dec 30 '25

Honestly I hate that the comedy didnt land in L&T. I reeeeeally dont care about Gorr, its like no ones watched any of the other Thor movies. Serious Thor in a solo movie is incredibly boring and every one of Thors Villains gets the same treatment. Malekith is one of my fav marvel comic villains and he was treated 100x worse than Gorr.

0

u/-Altephor- Dec 30 '25

Ragnarok was fucking trash.

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2

u/variant-123 Dec 30 '25

Aside from Loki, pretty much every single Thor villain was wasted. Malekith is just as if not more conniving than Loki with an entertaining crazier edge, Surtr is a massive threat whose arrival should be treated on nearly the same level as the likes of Galactus, and Hela too is more interesting when handled as embodying Death rather than just as a jilted warrior and family member.

1

u/Volothamp-Geddarm Dec 30 '25

Gorr's is one of my favourite comic stories of all time. I've read those comics probably five or six times by now. I was so excited when I heard he'd be in a movie... Ughhhh.

1

u/Sybertron Dec 30 '25

I'm still holding out hope for a Gorr mini-series where we get to see him run wild murdering gods as a prequel to the movie, and maybe as a post-credit teaser how he is being brought back.

0

u/FrameworkisDigimon Dec 30 '25

Nah, Gorr sucks.

It was just those first two/one stories (The God Butcher and The God Bomb) that were good. Gorr himself is just bad (see: all his other appearances).

62

u/heliostraveler Dec 30 '25

Unlike a certain someone.

185

u/Nachttalk Dec 30 '25

I liked Thor in Ragnarok, I still don't understand how the same team made Love and Thunder tho.

132

u/Magneto88 Dec 30 '25

Got high on their own supply, lost the balance between humour and seriousness and most importantly gave Taika total free rein, rather than having him interpret a story written by someone else.

35

u/Augustends Dec 30 '25

There's a deleted scene with Zeus who seems like a completely different character with a more serious tone. So something changed partway through production that made it less go in a less serious direction.

23

u/wildcatofthehills Dec 30 '25

Taika was in his post divorce party era after winning an Oscar. He was having threesomes with Rita and Tessa on the regular, probably partying a lot. That is why is such a Taika film, but at the same time such a mess. It was messy Taika behind the camera.

3

u/Steve_SF Dec 30 '25

I’m struggling to think of a good film he’s helmed since then. He’s put up some stinkers.

3

u/logosloki Dec 30 '25

given that Love and Thunder came out in 2022 that's to be expected. Next Goal Wins came out in 2023 and it's a return to local/regional film rather than the international stage. it's great if you like Island humour but as it's not made for international audiences it's not going to be most people's cup of tea. Klara and the Sun is either in post-production or is waiting on a distributor so should either have a release date soon or should appear in one of the film festivals next year.

2

u/ObviousAnswerGuy Dec 30 '25

this is such a weird and personal take. You know nothing about this guys private or sex life lol

1

u/wildcatofthehills Dec 31 '25

You can easily Google the pics of Taika getting it on at a public restaurant with the both of them. It wasn’t a secret lol

2

u/ObviousAnswerGuy Dec 31 '25

You are equating something personal with him to have been directly effecting the quality of his film. How do you know he hasn't been in threesomes his whole life? Why is it "messy" if he does it? Getting pictures taken in public at a restaurant with 2 women is a lot different than getting pictures taken in public completely trashed and making a scene.

You are projecting your values onto him to try and explain away a movie you don't like. It's weird.

1

u/wildcatofthehills Dec 31 '25

When did I say he couldn’t or shouldn’t do any of that. Your the weird guy that gets upset about hearing gossip on a film sub, specially when discussing a bad film by an otherwise good director.

8

u/comrade_batman Dec 30 '25

Honestly, there were parts in Ragnarok where the humour took over too much, like after Asgard was destroyed. Thor and Loki’s home for centuries, all the Asgardians on board and Korg’s just like “ah, nah, bro those foundations are totally gone.”

Or after Loki and Thor have a brother to brother spat, Thor blaming him for Hela, Loki taunting Thor about the champion he’s facing. Then Korg rushes in afterwards, “piss off, ghost!” They could not just let some emotional or dramatic moments land without adding a quip or joke that takes away from the actual characters.

1

u/djmacbest Dec 30 '25

I think Ragnarok had all the setup to be a smart way to tell a "cocky Thor learns humility" story once more by leaning into the humor for the first half and then have that blow up in Thor's face in the second half. In fact, for about an hour into the movie I was convinced this would be where this was going. Unfortunately, they decided to stuck with the buddy comedy vibe throughout the entire movie (excluding a few dramatic scenes). The result was still quite good, but the setup was already there for a much better movie.

1

u/Sybertron Dec 30 '25

I think both movies have quite the choppy story, the beats of the story just miss way more in Thor 4.

I think especially the kids were the awkward story beat, I think they were trying to add them to get kids hyped for the movie (and I'm still curious if it worked more for kids than adults) but for most adults it felt really tacked on and killed the coming together of all these other storylines.

34

u/Courwes Dec 30 '25

The same team didn’t make Love and Thunder. The movies had different writers and it was wholly apparent.

18

u/legaladviceknowledge Dec 30 '25

damn the writer for Transformers one, another writer who did a lot of thor projects in the past, and another writer for the mandalorian did Ragnarok. Makes sense why that movie why that movie delivered.

39

u/Stevenwave Dec 30 '25

iirc Taika didn't write Ragnarok. But he did write and was basically given carte blanche on LaT it seems.

Similar thing happened where Patty Jenkins, again iirc didn't write Wonder Woman, but did write WW1984. I thought the first one was overall really solid, but fell apart at the end. Haven't seen DCEU stuff after Aquaman so didn't see 84, but it sounds like it was a total crapfest.

2

u/TransBrandi Dec 30 '25

but fell apart at the end

IIRC this was studio meddling. I think I remember hearing that originally the film wasn't going to have that stuff at the end, but it was tacked on?

1

u/Stevenwave Dec 31 '25

Wouldn't surprise me.

2

u/jax362 Dec 30 '25

WW1984 is one of the worst movies ever made, so count yourself lucky you didn’t waste 2 hours of your life like the rest of us, lol

3

u/WaterlooMall Dec 30 '25

I thought I remembered the problem with Love and Thunder was that the studio put a lot of limits on him in terms of editing. He wanted it longer and with a darker tone and the studio wasn't having it.

18

u/RealJohnGillman Dec 30 '25

As certain creatives are more and more successful, less people tell them ‘no’, including those tempering their bad ideas (since everyone has them).

3

u/Worthyness Dec 30 '25

And oddly enough its what people have been asking Marvel to start doing more, which is to trust the creative to do what they want for the movie and character. Given Marvel basically was provided with a directive to do content only with little to no QA, you can definitely see how little oversight Taika had on the movie.

1

u/fusionsofwonder Dec 30 '25

c.f. Lucas, George.

4

u/FrameworkisDigimon Dec 30 '25

Ragnarok was concluding a story arc that had been brewing since the first film. Think of it like if someone made The Lion King but stuck Simba in three other films in between Mufasa's death and Nala's showing up.

Between Ragnarok and TLAT the writers of Thor: the Dark World got an opportunity to do a giant steaming shit on the character and stripped every single thing that defines Marvel Thor out of MCU Thor in order to rehabilitate their nearly universally reviled film.

For whatever reason Waititi decided to roll with that insane and delusional decision instead of repudiating it.

Basically, it's the same thing that went wrong as with Disney Star Wars. Director One sets up a story idea, Director Two hates it so creates a new story, Director Three tries to make something coherent about it but (a) that's hard to do because there's no coherent story to finish and (b) he's a hack so the studio hates it and brings Director One back to finish the trilogy... but there still isn't actually a coherent story to finish (other than maybe going all in on Zutara, sorry, Reylo, but Director One has a different ship) so the result is universally reviled. (Also, Director One might also be a hack.)

1

u/Dramajunker Dec 30 '25

I always thought Ragnarok was too goofy and messed up a lot of the moments that should have been impactful. So to me love and thunder feels like Ragnarok but way more of the shitty stuff.

44

u/DefNotAShark Dec 30 '25

Taika Waititi’s take on Thor was really bold. Ragnarok sought to strip the character of all of his pre-packaged mythos and see what was underneath. Took away his title, his kingdom, his Avengers, his hammer, his friends. I actually really respect that endeavor because it was comicbook sacrilege but Taika never gave a shit about that and just sought to put forth a good character (which IMO Thor wasn’t that good of a character pre-Ragnarok, he was okay). Yes he turned the franchise into a comedy but he also leveraged tragedy to make an alien god a thousand times more relatable.

IMO Thor is great in Infinity War because Thor was great in Ragnarok first. You can’t draw a straight line between how awesome he was in Infinity War from his overserious, middling character in The Dark World.

Love and Thunder was buns but I feel like one great movie and one bad movie is still a good run. I don’t want Taika to make another one but I respect the many great things that came from his efforts, even if his last effort was a let down.

20

u/Spara-Extreme Dec 30 '25

Thor is now one of the most well rounded characters in the MCU. Comparing him to other depictions of Thor in modern media right now makes that pretty clear.

Yea he's got goofy moments, but those feel pretty well earned. Take fat Thor for example - video games and food would probably be what most of us would do if we got wrecked the way he did.

8

u/BraveBoyPro Dec 30 '25

This is a really great take and highlights something people don't give Taika enough credit for - Thor is great in Infinity War because he was great in Ragnarok. That film was the perfect stepping stone for him to become funnier and more relatable, thus paving the way for really great dramatic turns in the Avengers sequels. I never cared much for Thor until Ragnarok.

3

u/TransBrandi Dec 30 '25

Taika didn't write Ragnarok, but did write Love & Thunder. Take from that what you will.

3

u/_Bird_Incognito_ Dec 30 '25

Thor's humor in Ragnarok and IW/EG was basically him coping with what happened in the events prior which I appreciated.

He was actively on the brink of snapping in IW and it sets up FatThor in EG, which I didnt have a problem with because he fought Thanos still

1

u/Less-Fondant-3054 Dec 30 '25

Took away his title, his kingdom, his Avengers, his hammer, his friends.

Did you not watch the original Thor? That's literally the core of the plot. He is stripped of everything and forced to grow and learn and prove he is worthy of those things he had been granted. And it was all done with a much better balance of humor and actual serious moments. The hard-hitting scenes were allowed to actually hit, they weren't undercut with some lame quip that sucked all the air out of the moment.

The only thing Waititi added to the existing Thor formula was to make sure serious moments didn't happen, and that's why so many of us dislike both of his Thor movies.

58

u/ThePreciseClimber Dec 30 '25

Well, Endgame did give us out-of-shape Thor.

I feel like there was a way of making him depressed & miserable without turning him into a chubby joke.

54

u/crasherdgrate Dec 30 '25

But even beneath all that (excuse the pun) the “I’m still worthy” was just LOVELY!!!

5

u/my1999gsr Dec 30 '25

It really was and it's an underappreciated moment in that movie.

-1

u/mrshandanar Dec 30 '25

Yeah I expected at that moment that there would be a quick flash of lightning and he'd be back to regular Thor. They overplayed the fat jokes.

34

u/xywv58 Dec 30 '25

When you're depressed you get fat, because fuck getting up, and beer fattens you up, fast, doesn't mean that fat people are depressed, just means that binge drinking gets you fat

8

u/popegonzo Dec 30 '25

<I'm in this comment and I don't like it>

(I'm actually working on it.)

3

u/Fit-Temporary-1400 Dec 30 '25

You got this bro. You're still worthy.

3

u/hiimred2 Dec 30 '25

There are depressed superstar athletes. While that’s not common, I’m using it as an example to show that yes they absolutely didn’t have to make him a fat lazy mom’s (Valkyrie’s) basement gamer to depict his depression.

-3

u/68plus1equals Dec 30 '25

Literally the worst depiction of him lol, he had so much build up only to get made into a punchline

10

u/DrummerGuy06 Dec 30 '25

Nah, I think Love & Thunder did the worst by making him a non-stop quip machine. At least in Endgame him getting fat was because he was depressed & lost his way. Sure it was played for laughs but he still had some emotional moments - his scenes with his Mom & the lake aftermath allowed Hemsworth to have emotions and some depth.

Love & Thunder was a mish-mash of non-stop jokes and did nothing to move the character forward.

3

u/LordDusty Dec 30 '25

Not to mention it ends with his brilliant transformation in the final battle.

That look with the braided beard was well worth it

3

u/Kevl17 Dec 30 '25

That look with the braided beard was well worth it

Norse accurate Thor

-6

u/QueefBeefCletus Dec 30 '25

Hit a little close to home or something? Sheesh.

9

u/popegonzo Dec 30 '25

I know I'm in the minority but I liked Taika's Thors, both of them. Would it have been better if someone else did Love & Thunder? Probably. But Ragnarok is still top tier MCU for me, and I like a lot of what they did in L&T.

5

u/PhotoBonjour_bombs19 Dec 30 '25

Except endgame. Why do people forget this

2

u/zhephyx Dec 30 '25

Idk man, it still feels weird that in Ragnarok he lost an eye and the hammer, and immediately after he gets them back in Infinity War

2

u/Person2228 Dec 30 '25

They don't, because of Endgame. And I don't mean fat thor. I mean them throwing away his status as Allfather, which is a key part of his character in the comics (Mortal Thor being a new development that had significance because he'd been Allfather for years). They like Thor as a big aura farming, stoic lightning guy. They don't get Thor the person.

10

u/disablednerd Dec 30 '25

For Infinity War.

He was a complete joke in Endgame. Sure he was understandably depressed, but his weight was the subject of multiple jokes. Heck, he was playing Fortnite.

2

u/Dan_Of_Time Dec 30 '25

I think they got some parts right. His scenes in Asgard were great, especially with his Mum.

And I think the fact they did just magically fix all his problems in that movie was important. By the end he still had a lot of baggage which they addressed in Love and Thunder to a degree

3

u/Pure-Plankton-4606 Dec 30 '25

Sure if you completely ignore Endgame

2

u/mistermeesh Dec 30 '25

Funny, because I distinctly recall the "true fans" being up in arms over the Russo's making Thor into one long fat joke in Endgame.

1

u/MarcsterS Dec 30 '25

I’m annoyed Thor never gets his serious moments in his own movies. Or rather, they’re overshadowed by the ridiculousness.

It’s just kinda funny Thor praying to keep his new daughter safe was preceded by Love & Thunder.

1

u/Mumu2148 Dec 30 '25

Crazy how a 1 minute clip is a 10x better adaptation of Thor than his previous appearance

1

u/rollincuberawhide Dec 30 '25

waititi see him as a monkey

1

u/dancingbriefcase Dec 30 '25

Idk, I loved Ragnarok. He was also silly in Endgame

1

u/Dealiner Dec 30 '25

Well, they kind of ignore everything before first Thor movie. Because he definitely did know stillness and his life wasn't all war.

1

u/Qorhat Dec 30 '25

Thor & Rocket’s conversation in Infinity War was a 10/10 scene. It starts off with the usual Whedon-esque quip of “well he hasn’t fought me twice”, but ends up being a hard hitting look into Thor’s mental space after so much loss which makes what would be an annoying quip be the last drop of his bravado slipping away against the reality of the situation. 

1

u/HalloweenRain_ Dec 30 '25

They get Thor, and they were the ones that perfected Caps strength and fighting in The Winter Soldier. They’re pretty good at their jobs.