Chris Hemsworth wants to keep playing Thor after Love and Thunder

A lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstays have left the franchise recently, but Chris Hemsworth has no intention of joining them:

Last year, several mainstays of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hung up their costumes and big goodbye to the franchise. Avengers: Endgame (probably) marked the final appearance of Chris Evans as Captain America and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, while Scarlett Johansson is presumably done playing Black Widow after her upcoming solo film.

And what about Chris Hemsworth, who’s play Thor the God of Thunder since 2011? He’s admitted before that there will come a time when he hangs up his hammer. “Whether it’s now or in the future, I don’t know,” he said on The Big Ticket podcast last year. “Who knows what the sort of future holds? I don’t know, there could be remakes, sequels, prequel — who knows?”

Happily, it’s now sounding like Hemsworth’s last hurrah as Thor will be happening later rather than sooner. Speaking with Polish magazine Elle Man, Hemsworth said he has no intention of retiring from the role of Thor after the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder.

“Are you crazy?!” he said. “I’m not going into any retirement period. Thor is far too young for that. He’s only 1,500 years old. It’s definitely not a film that I say goodbye to this brand. At least I hope so.”

Indeed, there does seem to be room for Thor to grow more as a character. When last we left him in Endgame, he was shipping out with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And in Love and Thunder, his old girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) will be taking up his old role.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 20: Natalie Portman of Marvel Studios’ ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2019 Marvel Studios Panel in Hall H on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

It sounds like a great concept for a new Thor movie. “After reading the script, I can say that I am very excited,” Hemsworth said.

"In this production, there will for sure be a lot of love and a lot of lightning. I’m glad that after all that happened in Avengers: Endgame, I’m still part of the Marvel Universe and we can continue the story of Thor. Of course, I can’t reveal anything about the plot. But to satisfy your curiosity, I will say that reading the script, I had a lot more fun than on Thor Ragnarok, and that shows something because that movie was brilliant."

Ragnarok was a little more light-hearted than the first two Thor movies; it was an unexpected director for the series to take, but it absolutely worked. If Love and Thunder sticks with that approach, we could be in for something very special.

Thor: Love and Thunder, from director Taika Waititi, is due out in theaters on February 11, 2022.

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h/t Variety