Big news from the land of Asgard; stuff so surprising not even Heimdall could have seen it coming.

TheWrap reports that Marvel has decided on a director to helm the third Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok. And it’s Taika Waititi, a writer/director/actor from New Zealand. Waititi is an accomplished filmmaker, but his work tends to be in a much smaller vein than your standard Marvel fare; character-based comedies and dramas like Eagle Vs. Shark and Boy. His most recent effort was the hilarious vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows, which was great but also not nearly of the size or scope of a Marvel movie. TheWrap says Waititi is now “in negotiations” for the job.

Supposedly, Waititi beat out Ruben Fleischer, the director of Zombieland and Gangster Squad, for the job. And he also wrote the upcoming Disney movie Moana, which may have been his foot-in-the-door at their sister company. In any event, he’s a bold choice and potentially exciting one; the best parts of the previous Thor movies tended to be the moments of comedy that cut through the stuffiness of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor character and the grandeur of Asgard and all its gods. Waititi could push things further in that direction — although with a title like Thor: Ragnarok (aka the death of the Norse gods) maybe not. It’s certainly enough to make a guy like me, who wasn’t hugely enamored with either Thor movie, get a lot more more curious about the next one.

Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters on November 3, 2017.

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