Taika Waititi Discusses Plans For Potential ‘Thor 5’: “We Need to Step Up”

Thor 5 could be coming sooner than you think. While there are currently no confirmed plans to create another sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi has already started thinking about his hopes for the future of Chris Hemsworth‘s MCU character.

In an excerpt from the Thor: Love and Thunder The Official Movie Special book, which will be released on Sept. 19, Waititi discusses the importance of Thor’s character evolution — and how the potential fifth installment would need a far more nefarious villain than Hela, who was played by Cate Blanchett in Thor: Ragnarok.

“What is left to do to him? It’s got to be something that feels like it’s carrying on with the evolution of the character, but still in a very fun way and still giving him things to come up against that feel like they’re building on the obstacles that he has to overcome,” he says, per ScreenRant.  “I don’t think we can have a villain that’s weaker than Hela. I feel like we need to step up from there and add a villain that’s somehow more formidable.”

The Oscar-winning director goes on to express interest in the Norse mythology tied to Thor’s origin. Because of this, he wants to put the superhero up against “more and more outlandish and crazy beasts, monsters, and aliens.” According to him, Thor is the one MCU franchise that “lends itself towards big, inventive, colorful creatures and aliens and things from different worlds.”

Waititi adds, “There’s a fun element to [Thor] and he has a casualness and a sort of swagger about him when he visits these worlds and encounters these aliens that I don’t think you’d get when it’s an earthling traveling through space exploring the universe.”

While Thor: Love and Thunder — the fourth installment in the franchise — received mixed reviews when it came out in July 2022, it went on to make a whopping $750 million at the global box office, per Forbes. Despite Hemsworth even thinking it became “too silly” at a point, he recently said a fifth film isn’t necessarily out of the question.

“I don’t want to continue to do it until people are so exhausted that they roll their eyes when they see me come on the screen as that character,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “If an audience wants to see it, and if there’s something that we believe is exciting and fun, then great.”

He continued, “I’ve loved being able to reinvent that character a few times. I don’t have the answer yet, but I would love to try and [figure out] how we can do that again and keep it a little unpredictable.” 

Here’s hoping we can see him wielding his Mjolnir again soon!

You can stream the first four Thor movies on Disney+.