Before director Patty Jenkins signed on to make the long-awaited Wonder Woman film — which opens in theaters next week — she had previously closed a deal with Marvel in 2011 to direct Thor 2.
Just months after Marvel confirmed the news, however, Jenkins departed the project, citing "creative differences," with no further explanation.
Many unnamed sources speculated about the reason behind Jenkins' exit, and until now, the filmmaker had never revealed what she had envisioned for the Thor sequel, which Alan Taylor ultimately took over.
While promoting Wonder Woman this week, Jenkins told BuzzFeed News she had originally pitched Marvel a sequel based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
"I pitched them that I wanted to do Romeo and Juliet. I wanted Jane to be stuck on Earth and Thor to be stuck where he is. And Thor to be forbidden to come and save Jane because Earth doesn't matter. And then by coming to save her ... they end up discovering that Malekith is hiding the dark energy inside of Earth because he knows that Odin doesn't care about Earth, and so he's using Odin's disinterest in Earth to trick him," she said.
"And so it was like, I wanted it to be a grand [movie] based on Romeo and Juliet ... a war between the gods and the earthlings, and Thor saves the day and ends up saving Earth."
Although Jenkins was "heartbroken" that she wasn't able to bring her vision of Thor 2 to life, she told Uproxx that "in retrospect it all makes sense."
"I don’t think I could have made a good movie out of Thor 2 because I wasn’t the right director. And I don’t think I would have been in the running for Wonder Woman as a result. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m glad I didn’t do it because I could have made a great Thor if I could have done the story that I was wanting to do. But I don’t think I was the right person to make a great Thor out of the story they wanted to do."