Chris Hemsworth's REAL Opinions on Avengers Franchise
So we all know how the majority of the population feels about the MCU. With a whopping 23 movies and counting, it’s safe to say that most people enjoy them. Heck, Avengers: Endgame just recently became the highest-grossing movie of all time, dethroning Avatar after nearly ten years. But what does the cast think about it? More specifically, what does Chris Hemsworth think about everything? How does he feel about Thor in the MCU?
The Portrayal of Thor
Chirs Hemsworth has portrayed Thor for over eight years now and has stated multiple times that he’ll continue to play the character for a long as Marvel will have him, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had his ups and downs with the role. Sometimes playing the character is fun, and sometimes it’s -- well, “meh.” Chris basically said this about the first two entries in the Thor solo movies. He enjoyed the first film -- makes sense, otherwise, he wouldn’t have come back, but Thor: The Dark World on the other hand...
The Dark World is considered one of the weakest entries in the MCU collection. It did well at the box office, but the reviews about it left something to be considered. It had a stale story, hit-and-miss comedy -- the usual complaints. Chris’ take on the movie doesn’t really differ too much from the public’s. He kind of echoes the fans’ opinions. He felt as if the story was just too familiar for his taste. So it looks like Dark World didn’t just put Thor in a bad light for the audience, but for Chris as well.
Then came along Thor: Ragnarok.
Thor Ragnarok is regarded as the best movie in the Thor franchise. It’s claimed to be the movie that reinvented Thor and put the character on everyone’s radar. It had this same effect on Chris, too. Chris loved Ragnarok. His work with Taika Waititi left him completely energized. So much so, that his original statement on playing the character for as long as Marvel would have him, turned into him claiming that he would come back to play Thor so long as the character was portrayed in a similar fashion as he was in Thor: Ragnarok. He enjoyed being able to play the character when he could break all the familiar walls surrounding Thor, and just kind of infuse more of himself into the role. He had a lot of fun with it.
Current Thor: Fat Thor
One of the more controversial choices with Thor was his Endgame appearance. Thor has always been shaped like most superheroes: muscles on top of muscles on top of more muscles, and maybe even a little more muscle on top of that -- just to be safe. You know, in case you didn’t understand already that the character was beyond the peak of the human physical condition. Really, the only Avenger who’s probably more muscular than Thor is, Hulk, and since Hulk is a big, green rage monster, that says a lot. But rather than stick to this tradition, Avengers: Endgame decided to do something different. It decided to give us chubby Thor.
Thor’s mistake of not killing Thanos when it actually mattered affected him so deeply that he completely let himself go. He traded in his six-pack for the beer belly, and the biceps for arm fat (he kept the super strength, though, probably a perk of being a god an all).
Not everyone loved the change, some thought it was funny, some thought it turned Thor into a joke character, but at the moment, general opinions don’t really matter. All that matters is Chris Hemsworth’s, and he loved it.
Apparently, Hemsworth found out about the idea of chubby Thor long before Infinity War and Endgame started shooting. The Russos' brothers called him up with the idea right after he had wrapped up Thor: Ragnarok. And you already know how he felt about that movie. Chris apparently likes taking risks, and what greater risk for a superhero character who’s always been muscular than to suddenly become really, really fat. He talked over the character arc with the Russo brothers for hours after learning about it and was okay with the decision they had in mind.
Apparently, the original script for Endgame didn’t see Thor staying chubby throughout the entirety of the movie. Somewhere midway, Thor was supposed to return to his original muscled physique, more than likely through the power of Stormbreaker. This is what most fans thought was going to happen as the film progressed toward the end, but Endgame decided to throw another curveball and keep Thor in his chubby state throughout the entirety of the movie. Turns out the reason this happened was because of Chris.
Chris just loved that version of the character and fought to keep him in throughout the movie. He said once he got started playing him, the role just took on a life of its own. It was so different from any other way he’s gotten to portray the character that he just found himself immersed in it (again, taking risks, and all that). Whether or not Thor decides to keep the look later on in the series is up in the air. Chris was adamant about not tying Thor’s arc to his losing weight in Endgame, so maybe thicc Thor with eight “c’s” is here to stay. Not a very far departure from his father Odin in a way. He, too, seemed to have gotten a little bigger in his older age.
With Thor being the first MCU to break his trilogy with a fourth movie, we’ll have a chance to see what happens. Thor: Love and Thunder is supposed to introduce Jane Foster as Lady Thor when it drops. Maybe she’s taking Chris’ place for a bit (that’s how it worked in the comics), or maybe she’s going to be working with him side-by-side.
Wrap Up
The portrayal of Thor has been an interesting ride for Chris. He thoroughly enjoyed playing the character of Thor in the first movie, believing it to be a fun and exciting time. And who wouldn’t be excited in his position? He was staring in his first-ever major superhero role. Setting up the character and presenting the character to the world was a fun time, and he enjoyed the overall outcome of the movie.
Thor: The Dark World was a little bit more challenging for Chris due to feeling constrained by Thor’s stoic nature. He had already played Thor twice by this point, both in the original film and the first Avengers, where Thor was a bit more lively. It also didn’t help that the overall result of the movie left something to be desired in its presentation.
But Ragnarok has Chris fully on board with Thor’s character and by extension the MCU as a whole. He can’t wait to see where the character goes next -- as evident by his reprisal of the role for the upcoming fourth movie. Again, a film that will break the traditional trilogies that the MCU tends to go for. We’re excited to see where it takes him, too. If he likes new things, Lady Thor will definitely shake things up for him.
