The decision to drop Patty Jenkins as the director for Thor 2 has ruffled the feathers of one of the franchise’s stars.  Actress Natalie Portman has expressed her displeasure with the decision, but it appears there’s little she can do about it since she is contractually obligated to appear in the sequel.

When news first broke about Marvel parting ways with Jenkins, reports indicated it was an amicable split.  Now news is coming out that Jenkins was fired as the director of the project.  This comes after Portman lobbied for Jenkins to get the job and was reportedly re-energized about acting in the upcoming film.  (Portman reportedly considered taking a break from acting to raise her family).

Meanwhile, insiders are telling widely divergent stories about why Marvel dropped Jenkins. A source with firsthand knowledge of the production says Marvel became concerned that Jenkins was not moving decisively enough and feared the film might miss its November 2013 release date. Exactly how Jenkins should have acted more decisively is unclear since no script was in place. Marvel had commissioned one from Don Payne before Jenkins came onto the project in October, but the studio now wants a rewrite.

Still, the source says the company felt she showed “a lack of overall clarity in her choices,” which led to concern that the process would be “difficult.”

But an insider in Jenkins’ camp says the lack of clarity might be on Marvel’s part. This person says Jenkins was so explicit about her vision for the film that she didn’t expect to be hired in the first place. The source speculates that Marvel executives might have been won over initially by Portman’s enthusiasm for Jenkins but then, “when they started to interview writers for the rewrite . . . may have decided they really weren’t comfortable.”

“Marvel had certain things they needed to achieve,” says another source. “There were constraints on what she could do creatively.”