Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi Hid Their Friendship From Marvel

Many Marvel fans now associate the New Zealand director Taika Waititi with Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, since the iconic duo’s movie Thor: Ragnarok completely turned around a failing franchise (and since the duo has teamed up again for the next Thor movie, Thor: Love and Thunder). However, Hemsworth and Waititi’s friendship is many years older than people might realize — and the pair just told PEOPLE magazine that their friendship was a secret they kept from Marvel Studios for quite some time!

Apparently, Chris Hemsworth approached Taika Waititi while making the first Thor movie and asked to meet; he had just seen the New Zealand director and What We Do in the Shadows actor’s new movie Boy and was impressed. The pair hit it off, and they were friends for a long time while Chris Hemsworth was busy making his second Thor movie and the Avengers films (and while Taika Waititi was busy in New Zealand making critically-acclaimed films like Hunt for the Wilderpeople).

Years later, Marvel Studios began planning for the third Thor movie — even though the first and second movies had not been successful. Chris Hemsworth told PEOPLE magazine that he learned Taika Waititi was being considered to direct Thor: Ragnarok, and promptly called his friend.

“When his name came up as the potential director for Ragnarok I called Taika and said, ‘Do we admit that we know each other? Or do we let it be their idea’?,” Hemsworth admitted. “And Taika said, ‘Let it be their idea’.” So the duo quietly watched Marvel Studios and the team behind Thor: Ragnarok as they decided to hire Taika Waititi, without Hemsworth’s mention of his connection to the actor and director. 

Secrecy is a common thing for Marvel actors, even though the secrets are usually being kept from the actors and not the other way around — but in this case, Hemsworth and Waititi’s secret friendship paid off! Taika Waititi’s new approach to the Thor franchise revived a failing Marvel series, and Hemsworth has become more and more popular with the last two Thor films (including this new movie, Thor: Love and Thunder) while Taika Waititi has stolen the show as Thor’s sidekick Korg.

You can see plenty of fun footage featuring Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth’s antics on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder here! Have you seen their newest movie yet? Did you know that the pair were so close before working together?