Taika Waititi’s bombshell Marvel’s Thor 5 confession: ‘I won’t be involved’

Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi attend the Sydney premiere of Thor: Love And Thunder. Photo / Getty Images

Taika Waititi may have directed Chris Hemsworth in the beloved Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, and the hugely divisive Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022, but he’s made a bombshell confession about his future with the Marvel films.

While promoting his brand-new film, Next Goal Wins - which premieres in New Zealand on December 7 - the director spoke to Business Insider revealing whether or not he will return for another Thor movie and it was nothing but sad news.

Responding to rumours that Marvel Cinematic Universe is developing a fifth film, Waititi said: “I wouldn’t know if that’s accurate,” adding, “I know that I won’t be involved ... I’m going to concentrate on these other films that I’ve signed on for.”

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It was recently announced the Kiwi-born and bred Hollywood A-lister has signed on to both co-write and direct a new Star Wars film, a live-action Flash Gordon remake, and an adaptation of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s epic space-opera, The Incal. During the interview with the news outlet, Waititi also revealed he plans to turn the Kazuo Ishiguro novel Klara and the Sun into a film.

Noting that the projects all together will equate to “six, seven years”, he continued to say that another Thor film will need to be in production much sooner and insisted, “I would never feel like they are cheating on me. We’re in an open relationship, and it’s like, if they want to see other people, I’m happy for that. I’d still get back into bed with them one day.”

Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok. Thor (Chris Hemsworth).

While Marvel has not announced whether a fifth Thor film is in their plans, the character is still very much alive in the fictional universe, presumably leaving the door open for his return.

The bombshell revelation comes after the Academy Award winner – and his stunt double – took time out of a big HBO production being filmed in Aotearoa to promote New Zealand to the overseas market.

The writer, director, actor and producer helped make and starred in an advert targeted at the valuable North American market and will be launched around his HBO Max show, Our Flag Means Death, which he’s making here.

The ad was filmed last December over three days, with the opening scenes at Piha. Waititi and his team worked closely on the concept and scripts with Tourism NZ, which had the goal of displaying the parts of the tourism experience it wanted to promote.