Thor 4: Taika Waititi drops Akira for second bite at God of Thunder
The problematic Warner remake of the classic anime is put on hold while the Ragnarok director returns to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe
If ever one needed proof that Hollywood can be prone to supping rather too enthusiastically from the electric Kool-Aid, let us look at the curious case of Taika Waititi and Warner Bros’ glacially gestating remake of the classic 1988 anime Akira. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the celebrated Kiwi japester has removed himself from the project, at least temporarily, after being asked to direct the as-yet-untitled Thor 4 for Marvel Studios. The real question is why Warner ever thought Waititi was the right director to take on Akira – or indeed why the idea of a Hollywood live action reworking of Katsuhiro Otomo’s far-out tale of exploding teenagers was ever picked up by the studio.
When Marvel plucked Waititi from relative obscurity (sorry, fans of What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople) and handed him the keys to Asgard for the revitalised Thor: Ragnarok, it proved a stroke of genius. The New Zealander found the comedian in star Chris Hemsworth by blending his own fondness for absurdist comedy with the rampaging space-opera high jinks of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Two years later, the son of Odin is the first Marvel superhero the studio turns to when in need of comic relief – hence Thor’s emergence as a cuddlier, more “emotionally open” version of himself in Avengers: Endgame.