Space sharks. Man-canceling suits. And Tony Stark ... alive?

Yes, yes, and not really.

Writer-director-actor Taika Waititi (and friends) hosted an Instagram Live watch party last week for his Marvel Cinematic Universe hit “Thor: Ragnarok,” one of several ways filmmakers are connecting with fans during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 12,300 people joined in to watch the Oscar-winning filmmaker gamely answer a seemingly endless stream of questions from fans as he also cooked a lamb dinner in his kitchen, his young daughter zipping around in the background.

The questions ranged from “What was your favorite scene?” to “Who smells better, Anthony Hopkins or Chris Hemsworth?” Turns out, “Anthony Hopkins does. Smells like tulips.”


About 40 minutes in, actress Tessa Thompson, whose Valkyrie character debuted in the film, joined the chat. Surprised fans blew up the text chat with declarations of love for both actress and character.

Waititi said the upcoming “Thor: Love and Thunder” “makes ‘Ragnarok’ seem like a very safe film. This new film feels like we asked a bunch of 10-year-olds what should be in a movie and said yes to everything.” He urged fans to look up “space sharks,” which are a thing in the comics and apparently will be soon in the MCU.

Thompson, warm and charming throughout, disarmingly admitted to having some low days during quarantine but added sometimes she’d wonder about famous people she doesn’t know: “Randomly, I’ll say, ‘I wonder how Rachael Ray’s doing? Is she feeling sad? Has she lost the urge to cook?’”


After Thompson left, costar Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk) joined, and things really devolved into a chatty video hangout.

Both men had to wear motion-capture suits during production (Waititi also played the character Korg). They called them “emasculation suits” or “man-canceling suits.” “They make you look big everywhere you want to look small and small where you want to look big,” Ruffalo said with a laugh.

Actual movie details were scarce for either film, though Waititi did offer a glimpse at supposed pages for the new movie, revealing Tony Stark was very much alive.

From the fake script:


Thor: But how? I saw you die.

Tony: Science. Also, Thanos is back. … Everyone who died is coming back. And this time we’re avenging even more than ever. From now on we’ll be known as … The Avengererers.

What did they end up talking about if not the films? There was a knock-knock joke duel with Waititi’s daughter and musings over what to teach their kids during the apocalypse.

“You know what’s not going to be helpful when the [worst] goes down? The Meisner method,” Waititi deadpanned about how useless acting skills would be when society collapses. Ruffalo advocated teaching the kids instead to “gut a caribou with your teeth.”


They spitballed names for their postapocalyptic tribe, more or less settling on “Sad Max: Weary Road.” And then they tried to mesh their faces into one on their screens.