Taika Waititi Boarded Flight To Thor Meeting With Moana Contract As ID

Taika Waititi says he boarded the flight to his first Thor: Ragnarok meeting by using his Moana contract as ID. The New Zealand director was primarily known for his independent comedy films before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the third Thor movie, which remains one of the larger franchise’s best-reviewed entries. A sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, is currently in post-production and scheduled for theatrical release on July 8.

Premiering in 2017, Thor: Ragnarok was somewhat of a game-changer for the Chris Hemsworth-led series, which had somewhat struggled to connect outside of the performances – Thor: The Dark World, for example, was for years the franchise’s lowest-rated entry on Rotten Tomatoes. On top of its striking visual palette, Waititi’s version of a Thor movie saw the hero be more openly funny, moving on from portraying him as broody and portentous. The resulting shift was very well-received, tapping into Hemsworth’s impressive comedic chops and encouraging his appearances in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame to be more in line with this reworking.

However, according to a story he tells during a recent appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Waititi almost didn’t get the chance to make his Thor: Ragnarok pitch. After vacationing in Hawaii, the filmmaker had his friends take some of his luggage back with them to New Zealand, and one of those bags unfortunately contained his passport. When the airport staff wouldn’t accept his New Zealand driver’s license, he searched his bag for something that could identify him, and the only thing he could find was the contract with Disney from his time as a writer on Moana. Check out Waititi’s story below:

So, I turned up to the airport, and I mean, I don’t know why, I just had to try. And there were these lovely guys there at the customs… I showed them my ID, they laughed at me… They said, ‘There’s no way you’re getting on this plane, mate. Have you got anything else?’ And by now, a bunch of them had gathered ’round and were all laughing at me. And I looked in my bag, and I still had a contract sitting there, an old contract from Moana, because I was the first writer on Moana. And I said, ‘Look, all I’ve got is this. It’s from Disney – Marvel, Disney, all the same people, you know. I’m trustworthy.’ And to their credit, the guy looked at the thing, he said, ‘Hey, bro, you’re working on Moana. Hey, we’re pretty excited about that. Get on that f**king plane!’

Waititi says he ended up making it to the meeting on time, and credits securing the Marvel gig to the airport staff. It’s unlikely that gambit would’ve worked had he been flying out of anywhere but Hawaii, as Moana was notably built and marketed on its incorporation of Polynesian heritage, which would naturally have generated some extra goodwill in the Aloha state. Though Waititi has said little of his original Moana script made it into the finished film, he certainly wouldn’t have been eager to supply that information at check-in.

While many are sure to be surprised by this story of US airport leniency, it worked out well for Marvel fans in the end, who got to see the New Zealand director’s unique vision for Thor: Ragnarok make it to the big screen. Securing the directing job for Thor: Love and Thunder was presumably much easier, though it did come with border trouble for some of its cast. Matt Damon needed permission to film his cameo from the Australian government after the country enacted strict COVID-19 entry procedures, and knowing Disney came in handy then, too.

Source: The Late Late Show with James Corden

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