It’s official: Patty Jenkins will direct Thor 2.
Marvel Studios confirmed rumors with the announcement that Jenkins, whose experience includes directing the movie Monster as well as episodes of AMC’s The Killing as well as Entourage and Arrested Development, will helm the second installment of the movie version of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby character. Chris Helmsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddleston were also mentioned in the announcement, with all three returning for the movie, due for release November 15, 2013.
Should we consider Hiddleston’s involvement to be an Avengers spoiler…?
October 13th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
No surprises here. And Hiddleston being in Thor 2 is not a spoiler unless someone crazily believed that Marvel would kill Loki in the Avengers movie. And who would have believed that?
October 13th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Personally Marvel/Paramount should’ve went with either Brian Kirk or retained Kenneth Branaugh, but we’ll see how it turns out.
October 13th, 2011 at 2:59 pm
I think not having Branaugh, helm the 2nd film will be a mistake. The story of Thor was complex and I believe Branaugh did a fantastic job enterweaving the elements of the story together.
October 13th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Well I can’t say that I’m excited but it’s better than someone like Mark Steven Johnson. I’d still have liked to see a director with more experience with special fx even though Branagh handled himself well.
It’ll be interesting to see where they take Thor now that they’ve cleared the Asgard hurdle in the first film.
October 13th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Wow..not sure if im onboard for this. I rememeber the last female director..Lexi Alexander, Punisher War Zone…big bomb imho
October 13th, 2011 at 9:26 pm
No Anthony Hopkins? I hope he didn’t act like a prima donna regarding his paycheck, though I don’t imagine he would considering how much he reportedly enjoyed working on the first one…
October 13th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
@Rodster: don’t worry, the box-office of Punisher War Zone more than supports your opinion that it was a bomb; I think, after three failed attempts to launch Frank Castle’s film career they should just leave him in the funny books. Nobody can quite translate the brilliance of Garth Ennis anyway…
October 14th, 2011 at 1:58 am
Personally, I think this is a bad decision but hopefully this unfortunately development will lead to Panty Jenkins re-teaming with her Monster star and we’ll get to see Charlize Theron as Amora, the Enchantress. That would also make it Charlize’s second time working with Chris Hemsworth.
October 14th, 2011 at 2:35 am
@Vuil Poes:
Great idea man! I can definitely see Theron as the Enchantress!
October 14th, 2011 at 4:30 am
Wait, so because one bad superhero director was female, that means all female directors will be bad at superhero work? Not all women magically direct alike anymore than all male directors direct alike.
That’s as silly as saying that the last Hulk writer, Jeph Loeb, was a man. His Hulk sucked. Therefore be wary of any males who want to write the Hulk.
October 14th, 2011 at 5:23 am
Seriously, except Kathryn Bigelow, give me one female director who can handle big-budget action movies. Women are good for drama-movie, and maybe (sometimes) for comedy-movie. But Action-movie ? I don’t think so
October 14th, 2011 at 7:32 am
@Lord Byron:
Sexist much?
October 14th, 2011 at 8:07 am
@ Lord Byron: How many absolutely crappy movies have been directed by men???
Her gender has no bearing on this discussion whatsoever. While I enjoyed the first movie, it definitely had its faults. As with most things, I will take a “wait and see” approach. Marvel seems to think she can do it and for me, that is good enough. I shall reserve judgement for the actual product.
As for Theron as Enchantress, I could see that. She can do serious and action. Amora needs to be more than just a ‘hot girl’ and I think Theron has the acting chops to play a good Amora.
As for plot, Thor has so many cool elements to draw from, I could watch a Thor movie that takes place entirely in Asgard and/or 9 realms. We have Hela (death realm could be awesome), Ulik, Midgard Serpent, Surtur, Enchantress and Executioner, etc. If they managed to bring in Beta Ray Bill, that would be beyond cool.
October 14th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Thor has a great rogues gallery as far as potential movie sequels are concerned. Any of the characters CapCanuck mentioned could carry a film, as well as the Gray Gargoyle, the Absorbing Man, the Wrecking Crew, and Malekith.
October 14th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Disney probably hired a woman because they intend to heavily sanitize and censor the action from being too “intense” like they do with all their movies.
October 14th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
If this is the person responsible for the last episode of “The Killing” then Thor 2 is doomed. Likewise, Entourage towards the end was abysmal as 99 percent of the fans who loved the show admitted. But… Mavel’s done well picking directors and I’ve never read anywhere that Marvel fired Branaugh. The guy has a million irons in the fire and quite possibly didn’t want to spend another two years on one of those projects. If they did push him out or fire him, this does have the feel of another Ang Lee reach.
October 15th, 2011 at 2:03 am
Wow the amount of sexist comments on here should be surprising, but somehow it’s not. It’s still sad.
A person’s gender has no bearing on their ability to direct a film. A great portion of films are directed by men (a greater portion than are directed by women) and yet the amount of bad films men make don’t have you doubting each movie by a man does it? Geez, it’s bad enough outsiders see us as sexless virgins living in our parents basement, now you’re giving them the proof as to WHY we’re seen this way. Grow up.
Branaugh did a great job on Thor despite not being known for big superhero epics but somehow we won’t extend that same open-mindedness to Jenkins? I for one will do what I always do: Take the rational approach which is to wait and see what the film is like before praising or condemning. That’s not to say don’t form a HYPOTHESIS, but the degree of ‘The sky is falling’ hysteria is sad, especially since it mainly seems to stem from the fact that she’s female. Or maybe that’s just the vocal minority, perhaps more sensible people don’t air grievances on forums…(I’m aware of the irony).
October 17th, 2011 at 10:34 am
The podcast How Did This Get made had director Lexi Alexander on a recent episode where she talked about Punisher War Zone.
Really a great listen, and it offers some great insight regarding the way movies are made.