Thor : The Dark of the World is a total gamechanger for evil , spaceship - fly elves and malleus - throw Norse gods . Thanks to manager Alan Taylor ’s retiring workplace on Game of Thrones , we ’re getting to see the grotesque Asgard through the crystalline lens of reality , which only makes it more badass . Read what Taylor pushed for from Marvel , why the commode elbow room had to explode and why man - braids are an integral part of Thor 2 .
Some minor spoilers ahead !
io9 : There ’s a lot more phantasy in this film than in the previous film ( which was mostly set in New Mexico ) . Did Game of Thrones help set you for that ?
Alan Taylor : I think Game of Thrones was decisive to me being capable to do this movie , and being capable to palpate like there is a straddling of reality and fantasy . I sort of thought that I had already been in that process [ in GoT ] . Also , from the other side , I suppose Marvel was interested in me because of Game of Thrones — by bring me on , we all know what we ’re talking about here . It ’s trying to find that balance where it ’s fantastical but you do n’t disbelieve it . For me , it was epic and illusion , but you dead relate , in a form of intimate way , to this guy wire and his buddy . It was trying to keep a human scale while it ’s openhanded and real and dirty . And also while it ’s being fantastical . So there was definitely prep there .
I ’ve always admired how much Game of Thrones tries to lean away from the fantastical , so when it comes you actually really savor it . In season one , when the dragons at long last plough up it ’s not like sequence 2 , “ DRAGONS ! ” You almost do n’t really believe it . They do n’t think in Draco in that world either . So when they move around up there ’s a real “ wow ” character to it . I really admire the style they manage it .
It ’s comical you say there ’s more fantasy in this rendering — yeah , the whole thing is silly . It ’s a hombre who fly around with a hammer . We had more realms and our villains are passably fantastical . There were days when I consider , “ We ’re shooting elves on a spaceship … if we can make this at all credible we ’re o.k. . ”
And that ’s the assumption : Elves on a spaceship and Vikings stand out through portals . When you really think about what it is , outside of the Marvel Universe , it ’s crazy .
It ’s unhinged ! There ’s one point when Asgard is being attacked . We had to manufacture fomite for the Asgardians , because we were spending more sentence in Asgard . So it was very important to draw upon Viking iconography [ for this introduction ] . So we basically create a Viking longboat , but it just go on to fly and have hoagie . And there ’s one point when one of them shoots up in the air and goes after the elves — it ’s laughable . But at the same time it seemed like a coherent world .
I think one of the things that really helps ground the fantasy in this movie is how organic Asgard feels . Even the Rainbow Bridge seems much more real in this movie .
I wanted to shoot on position , I wanted to shoot on sets that were construct exterior . So we had a portion of Asgard that you could actually walk around in , in the sunlight . Outside of Asgard I wanted to stage genuine battles in the actual woods . We went to Iceland to do that , otherwise it would have been just a greenscreen box . or else , we had actual Icelandic landscape — that think a batch to me .
I desire to get offstage in Asgard . The first movie — it was a figure selection that I did n’t go for , but I ca n’t say enough magnificent things about how Kenneth Branagh set up this universe and this form — but the shininess of it sort of turn me off . So I was trying to get more grain into the man . I was excited that when we lastly got into the throne elbow room we got to gasconade it up , destroy it .
Did you obtain that bollix up up Asgard made it more organic ?
You make it feel vulnerable , which crap it feel literal . But I was enjoying thing … like , we go into the pubs concisely in Asgard . We go into the backstreets a little minute . We see the training ground — not the castle that ’s all lustrous , but where the actual grunts are there practice warfare . It felt like we were understand backstage a little bit . And also we shot some stuff in Norway to give it a real landscape .
I was scandalise at how funny this picture show is .
I ’m so happy to get word you say that . I came in to bemire it up , to make it darker . And then Disney started calling it The Dark World , and I thought , “ Okay , sorry ! ” But at the same time we were making this , I thought , “ If we do n’t make this funny we ’re screwed . ” Because this is Marvel and you have to be doing both . And I ’m so thankful to be get wind that people are responding to the humor .
How do you poise the temper and the grease ?
It belong beyond grime , we are actually [ MAJOR SPOILERS ] killing beloved quality . So how do you do that and then two scenes later do a jocularity ? We kill a darling lineament and then a few minutes later on there ’s a joke where a cellular telephone halo and Thor say , “ It ’s not me . ” I thought , if we can do that switch , where we just defeat somebody , and now we ’re doing this , we ’re in good human body .
On one hand , it ’s very much Marvel to do that . To be cognisant of the ridiculousness of the thing , to maltreat back and let it be laughable . On the other hand , all of my favorite movie maker are always dark and funny at the same time . I proceed to NYU film school because Martin Scorsese was god back then , and he ’s always queer and he ’s always terrifying . That Libra is the hooey of life .
Speaking of the bloodshed , the movie is also really crimson — you slice up a character ’s weapon off . Was there anything you could n’t get away with ?
It ’s amusing you say the word bloodshed . Because , if you notice , there ’s almost no parentage ever . That ’s because Marvel does n’t do stemma . part because the rating we need to go for does n’t do parentage . And I ’ve got three minor kids that I go for will go see it , and you do n’t really need to do lineage . So there ’s essentially no blood . Even when we chop the hired man off , we say it ’s a cauterizing tongue that does it . You see some blood from elves , but that tend to be pitch-black , so it ’s less worrisome . belike the most stock you see is when Loki ’s tear apart his cell and you see his invertebrate foot ’s been cut . There ’s a good deal of violence , there ’s death , but there ’s almost no blood .
Was there anything else you tried to do that Marvel said no to ?
I was pushing for more history sometimes . I [ wanted ] more horses and I was assure no . I love the fact that this was an ancient civilization that actually had horses . I think there was a Marvel discomfort that when you have starship you ca n’t really have horse , but you ’ve got optical maser guns fighting swords , so that ’s already there . In my creative thinker , this is a really refined cultivation and , just as we use fountain pens because we think they ’re cool , I suppose that civilisation would use horses for the next six billion years . It ’s not that they have n’t invented the cable car yet , it ’s that they think horses are coolheaded . That ’s why I wanted to habituate a lot of horses . Maybe because I was coming out of Game of Thrones and I wanted more of the same . That was the one clip that I felt like I was being held back .
gold braid are really of import to this movie .
Yes ! They are ! I ’m so glad you notice ! Are n’t they cool - looking ? That ’s actually a good metaphor for talk about the intention of the flick . I did n’t wish the tomentum in Thor , I hated the pilus on The Avengers . Getting the hair right became a symbolic , one small way of enjoin this is what the movie is going to look like . Thor ’s getup has changed , his hair is all different . I look at stills from our movie and I guess “ that is a Norse warrior . ” His Dad ’s got braids . And it ’s not girly when you put it on a warrior . Braveheart had braids . If you take care at that and do a close up of The Avengers ’ Thor , just in terminal figure of the look of the thing , I recall he ’s come a tenacious style .
ComicsGame of ThronesMarvelMoviesThor 2
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