Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Pratt recently suggested that Taika Waititi added space goats to the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster to prank Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn.
Pratt discussed the mythical beasts of burden, known as Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, in a recent interview with Marvel Entertainment. "[Waititi] just wanted to stick James with some goats," he said. "James has to pick up [in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3] where Taika left off, and he stuck us with some space goats... Typically [MCU directors don’t stick each other with stuff in the background], but I guess Taika kind of plays by his own set of rules...you’ll see there’s a few things that he did that I think was kind of an inside joke to play on James. It’s a bit of that sort of improv world where you see what you can roll with."
Waititi himself recently joked about Thor: Love and Thunder's space goats, citing them as an example of the film's whimsical tone. "When you look at this film, it's like we asked a bunch of six-year-olds what they wanted in a movie, and we just said 'yes' to everything," he said. The Kiwi filmmaker added that while some fans immediately assumed that he created Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, they were actually inspired by real-life Norse mythology. Although Waititi didn't mention it, The God of Thunder's goats also previously appeared in comic book writer-artist Walt Simonson's legendary 1980s Thor run, too.
Space goats aside, Waititi and Gunn apparently have a strong working relationship. Waititi recently recalled how supportive Gunn was when he was hired to direct Thor: Ragnarok. He also revealed that he collaborated with Gunn on the Thor: Love and Thunder scenes featuring The Guardians of the Galaxy. "I always knew we were going to kind of just hand those scenes to [Gunn], and say, 'How do these characters talk? Have I missed a character?'... He would go through it, and go, 'Groot wouldn't say something like that. He'd be a bit more like this.' So he was very helpful in that way," Waititi said.
Waititi is decidedly less deferential to MCU fans than he is to his fellow filmmakers, however. The director recently spoke about the pleasure he derives from trolling the Thor fanbase. "I like to listen to the fans and then I like to troll the fans back a bit, because it just brings me some little bit of joy. Just a little bit," he said. "I don't have many joys in my life, y'know, I've got my kids and trolling fans."
Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theaters on July 8.
Source: Marvel Entertainment