thor eater eggs australia

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Director Says He Filled The Film With Cool Aussie Easter Eggs

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Taika Waititi has done it again, and by “done it again” we mean been an absolute legend in every conceivable way. Ahead of the theatrical release of Thor: Ragnarok, which Waititi directed, he’s let slip that the film’s full of Aussie easter eggs and references.

In an interview with Screen Australia, Waititi said the easter eggs are an attempt to make sure there’s “lots of little things that would just, for me, help make it actually a true Australian film rather than, ‘oh they just shot a movie in Australia’”.

Some of those “little things” that make the film Australian include casting Indigenous Australian and Māori actors, meeting with traditional owners for a proper Welcome to Country before starting filming, and creating opportunities for local Indigenous interns to get experience shadowing Waititi on set. Other moves are sillier: no joke, all the spaceships in the film are named after types of Holden.

“And for the ship that they fly out on, the Commodore, we basically just took all of the colours from the Aboriginal flag and rearranged everything around the design of the ship, so it’s all red black and yellow,” Waititi told Triple J this morning. “So, the heroes of the film are escaping from this world in the Aboriginal flag.”

None of this was done lightly or tokenistically, either — as a Māori person himself, Waititi told Triple J his motivation in doing most of this was “just to make myself feel more comfortable on set.”

“These films are so big, and the scale is huge. I had to just dot little, kinda, easter eggs for myself around the movie and around the set and stuff, just to make myself feel a little bit more comfortable”.

As for things like borrowing from Indigenous flags and symbolism, Waititi told Screen Australia he made sure to be “very careful in these design meetings”, to try to make sure you don’t end up with “50 people who have appropriated all these beautiful ancient designs without asking what they mean, or who owns them, or for any permission”.

Basically, it sounds like not only is the latest superhero film full of sick Aussie easter eggs, but it’s full of sick Aussie easter eggs that make a real effort to respectfully engage with Indigenous Australian culture.

How good is Taika Waititi, guys? Thor: Ragnarok hits cinemas next week, and we can’t fucking wait.

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Via Junkee.