Leading up to the release of Thor: The Dark World, the Internet was abuzz with rumors that Joss Whedon was airlifted to the set of the Marvel sequel and dropped in like some kind of supersoldier in order to help fix scenes that weren’t working.
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When we spoke to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige prior to Thor’s November 8 release, we asked him about those Whedon rumors in an effort to find out exactly what the Avengersdirector added to the movie.
“Some of Alan’s comments were taken out of context a bit,” Feige said. “Joss [Whedon] is focused one hundred percent—and has been for the better part of the year—on Avengers: Age of Ultron. That being the case, we’ve been keeping him in the loop on all of the Phase Two movies leading up to it, primarily so he can know where all the characters stand when Avengers 2 begins. That being said, thankfully, he is giving us his thoughts on… whether it’s early drafts of the movies or early cuts of the movies, and we’re squeezing every good idea we can get out of the time he’s not working on Avengers.
“In the case of Thor: The Dark World, it wasn’t any more or less than it’s been on any of the other films,” he continued. “There were a few lines of dialogue here and there—I think in that Loki/Odin scene that we were talking about. [Also] in the scene between Thor and Loki on the Skiff going through Svartalfheim when they’re talking about their relationship. Joss helped out [on those scenes], they made it into the movie and are better for it.”
Good to know, but honestly, I don’t much care why Whedon was brought in or how well the film was before he was brought in. All I need to know is that he contributed and the film will certainly be better off for his involvement.
When we asked about it, Feige revealed that the additional Loki stuff was actually inspired by the movie’s tie-in comic.
“I will tell you it was a combination of things,” he said. “The scene with Loki in chains being led towards Odin at the beginning of the movie was one of the additional photography scenes, and it actually came about for a couple of reasons. I was reading the tie-in comic and they had that scene in it. I get all the comics when they’re published—I flip through some of them, and I was flipping through that one and I went, ‘Holy crap—this has got to be in the movie!’ It’s slightly different in the comic than it is in the movie, but I thought this has to be in the movie. So I called Tom [Hiddleston] and we talked about his availability, and we said we were gonna do this scene. So he goes, ‘Remember, I pitched you that scene. Months ago!’ Well, I did not remember, but I believed him, and I’m happy for him to take credit for it because he does an amazing job in the movie.”