Reportedly, co-star Natalie Portman “strongly urged” Marvel to hire Jenkins, who would have been “the first woman to direct a superhero tentpole” at the time – something she later achieved at a rival studio. According to Jenkins, her pitch for the story was a riff on Romeo and Juliet, in which Thor is “forbidden” to “save Jane because Earth doesn’t matter.” When he does so anyway, they “end up discovering that Malekith is hiding the dark energy inside of Earth” and got away with it because “Odin doesn’t care about” our planet. Which, to be honest, sounds way better than what we got in the end.
Unfortunately, Jenkins’ idea was rejected, which left her “heartbroken.” She ultimately left the project; and while some reports at the time claimed that she was fired, Jenkins later clarified that she left the project due to the abject terribleness of the script she was handed, and because she was worried that the resulting mess “would have looked like it was my fault.” Which, in retrospect, was a good call. No word on why she didn’t play the same card for Wonder Woman 1984, though.