Thor: Love and Thunder is a welcome addition to the Marvel cinematic universe, thanks to its dazzling colors, clever humor, and heartfelt emotional moments. And that’s due in no small part to Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who co-wrote the script with director Taika Waititi. Kaytin Robinson has had a hand in some of our favorite films and television shows over the past few years. She created MTV’s college vigilante series Sweet/Vicious, and wrote and directed Netflix’s female friendship comedy Someone Great. Her next film, Do Revenge, is a dark comedy that sees two high schoolers (Camila Mendes, Maya Hawke) getting revenge on each other’s bullies.
Robinson discussed working on Love and Thunder with The Hollywood Reporter, where she discussed shaping Gorr the God Butcher’s storyline, Natalie Portman’s return to the series, and more. In creating Gorr and his origin, she said, “We did a lot of work as a group. [Producer] Brad Winderbaum, Taika and myself — really trying to find the right tone, where he can fit in a Taika world and be fun, but he’s also a formidable villain. His story is tragic, and you really want to make sure you don’t trivialize that and make it seem funny. You also want to give Christian moments where he can play within the worlds Taika creates. It doesn’t have to be this downer villain, which was very important to Christian as well.”
Robinson noted that the flashbacks to Thor and Jane’s relationship happened after the film was shot, with much of their montage coming together in the editing. She said, “It was not just conversations with Taika, but conversations with Chris and Natalie. Really trying to flesh out, ‘How much do we want to show? How much of it is ex-girlfriend vs. Mighty Thor?’ Really trying to find the balance across the board of what is Jane’s story and what should be the focus? Something that came to the surface was wanting to know more about the past of that relationship.”
She also touched on the romantic rivalry between Stormbreaker and Mjölnir, saying “In Taika’s first draft, Stormbreaker had kind of a personality. It was running at that and finding exciting ways everywhere we could to pepper in that jealous new love looking at the old love. It is a love triangle. You have the Thor and Jane love story, and then you have the love triangle of Mjölnir and Stormbreaker. Honestly, I ‘ship it. I love it.”
Robinson was also as surprised as we were about the mid-credits cameo, where Brett Goldstein shows up as Hercules. “No, that was a top-secret situation I did not know about, and I was surprised to see at the premiere. It’s fun to come to this movie where I knew all the twists and turns, but could still walk out of it being like, “holy shit!”, she joked. She also added that she used her experience on Love and Thunder for Do Revenge, where she took a page out of Waititi’s book. “I was able to take Taika’s ethos of dumping all the toys in the toy chest out and being like, “We’re going to use all of it and have it fit together” and being able to implement that on my film, which was not something you would think you would use Marvel storytelling for. So it really all goes hand-in-hand in the most unexpected ways.”
Do Revenge premieres on Netflix on September 16. Thor: Love and Thunder is currently in theaters.
(via THR, featured image: Marvel Studios)
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