Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi revealed he removed a Kate Bush-set dance sequence from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film after Stranger Things "ruined" the singer's music.
The filmmaker told NME that, before Stranger Things 4's use of "Running Up That Hill," he planned on using multiple songs by Bush in Love and Thunder. "We were gonna have 'This Woman's Work,' which was gonna be great for [a scene with] Natalie Portman's character," Waititi revealed. "There was actually gonna be a lot of ABBA [music] in the film as well."
Waititi also explained his annoyance with Bush's recent resurgence in popularity only being due to the Netflix series. "I love [Stranger Things], but as someone who feels a real ownership of Kate Bush music… I'm really annoyed!" he said. "I've become one of those old arseholes who's like: 'These kids never listened to Kate Bush, they've heard one song on a TV show! They don't know Kate Bush! I know Kate Bush!'"
Thor and Stranger Things Dance-Off
"Running Up That Hill" was featured prominently during Season 4 of Stranger Things, particularly in the climax of "Chapter Four: Dear Billy." The sequence, which featured orchestral backing of the original 1985 song, shot Bush's music into the public stratosphere. Series creators the Duffer Brothers made sure to heavily consult Bush on how they used her song, which resulted in the musician being aware of huge Stranger Things 4 spoilers before its public release.
It was previously revealed a Bush-inspired dance sequence featuring Christian Bale, who plays Gorr the God Butcher, ended up being cut out of Thor: Love and Thunder. "Taika and I wanted to do a whole dance, which we didn't get to do, but we had all this sort of Kate Bush stuff that we worked at," Bale revealed in June. "But I think he just [realized] he was never going to be allowed to put that in the final film."
The usage of Bush's music is far from the only element cut from the MCU film. In fact, Portman, who returns as Jane Foster, previously confirmed entire planets were removed from an early cut of the film. Despite this, however, Waititi has stated that he has no intention of releasing a director's cut of Thor 4, going so far as to say that director's cuts "suck."
Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters. Stranger Things 4 is available to stream on Netflix now.
Source: NME