If you'd asked Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi around San Diego Comic-Con this past summer how long the God of Thunder's third movie would be, his answer would have been around 100 minutes. While there are plenty of superhero movies over the years that have clocked in under two hours, such a running time would have made Thor: Ragnarok the shortest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie yet. However, since then, Thor: Ragnarok has been increased to be over two hours, and the reason for this was to pack even more humor into the movie. According to Waititi:
When people asked me, 'How long do you think the film is?', there was a time when it was going to be around 100 minutes...Well, after Comic-Con, we decided to put lots of the jokes back in.
While most of the MCU movies are infused with a decent amount of humor, including the previous Thor movies, Thor: Ragnarok has been promoted as one of the funniest movies of the franchise yet. And with so many being jokes being thrown back in following the reshoots, moviegoers can expect even more laughs, part of which is because Taika Waititi gave more comedic material to Chris Hemsworth, who has proven how funny he can be in Ghostbusters and the Team Thor shorts.
In any case, Thor: Ragnarok is now approximately two hours and 10 minutes long, placing it in the same territory as MCU entries like Iron Man 3 and Spider-Man: Homecoming. As Waititi later noted in his interview with Collider, he realized that Thor: Ragnarok staying at 100 minutes likely wouldn't have been permanent, but he wasn't planning on having the cosmic blockbuster surpass two hours. He continued:
When I said it was going to be 100 minutes...we were at about 100 minutes, we had just done our reshoots, so we knew it was going to come up from there. But, there was a world where I thought, 'Yeah, it's going to maybe sit at around 100, definitely no more than 2 hours.' And now it's just about, what, 2 hours 10?
Of course, Thor: Ragnarok is still a superhero film, so even with all the added humor, moviegoers can expect plenty of action and dazzling visual effects. Taking place two years after Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok will see the God of Thunder attempting to stop Hela from unleashing the apocalyptic event known as Ragnarok to destroy Asgard. However, before he can do this, he'll have to survive his time on Sakaar, which will include him fighting his friend from work, the Incredible Hulk.
Thor: Ragnarok is finally being released this Friday, November 3. You can read our review of the movie ahead of time, as well as look through our 2017 premiere guide to plan your remaining trips to the theater this year accordingly.
