Taika Waititi “didn’t have to do much” to convince Natalie Portman to return for the fourth Thor movie.
Back in July, it was announced that the Oscar-winning actress was reprising her role as Dr. Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder, which will be co-written and directed by the New Zealand filmmaker.
It was later confirmed that Portman would become The Mighty Thor in the upcoming instalment of the hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, which is led by Chris Hemsworth, who plays the eponymous God of Thunder.
And Waititi explained that he had an easy job persuading the 38-year-old to come back to Thor, after her character was notably missing from 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.
“I mean, I didn’t have to do much. And, I think for her it was about making the character interesting. And I think especially when you’re playing ‘an Earthling who’s just into science’ in one of these big movies, it kind of gets a bit sort of, you know…” he told Uproxx. “After doing that for two movies, you want to do something different.”
Waititi also suggested that Portman wanted to revisit her character in Thor: Love and Thunder as she finally gets to wield the powerful hammer Mjolnir.
“I think for her, the thing that might’ve been attractive about this is being able to step it up and be a superhero. And I’d rather her do that than play a scientist. And it’s also from the comics as well. So it’s not something we made up,” he added.
