Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is one of the most beloved roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Beginning his journey in Thor (2011), the actor has not only completed a trilogy of solo movies — with his next installment, Love and Thunder, around the corner— but he’s also been a key figure in the Avengers movies.
Every movie Thor has featured in a movie, it’s been a huge success. That said, there was a brief blip in the franchise back in 2013, when Thor: The Dark World failed to captivate audiences. Now that we’re almost a decade on from The Dark World, Hemsworth looked back on the movie and weighed in on why it fell flat.
The Dark World is considered one of the worst entries in the MCU for numerous reasons. There’s the forgettable plot, and the even more forgettable villain in Christopher Eccleston’s Dark Elf leader Malekith. And as Hemsworth notes, the movie didn’t offer much development for his character. “I wasn’t stoked with what I’d done in Thor 2,” the actor told Vanity Fair. “I was a little disappointed in what I’d done. I didn’t think I grew the character in any way, I didn’t think I showed an audience something unexpected and different.”
Chris Hemsworth “wasn’t stoked” with his work in Thor: The Dark World
After the disappointment that was The Dark World, Hemsworth began to grow tired of playing the character. That was until Taika Waititi came on board to completely reinvent Thor in Ragnarok:
"And then when Ragnarok came along, out of my own frustration of what I had done, and this is not on any other director or anyone, this was my own performance. I really wanted to break the mold. And I said this to Taika and I think the conversation we had was, I said ‘I’m really bored of Thor.’ And he said, ‘Yeah I’m really bored of Thor, too.’ And then we decided not to be bored and any time that feeling came into play, we’d go in a different direction."
Thor: Ragnarok was a huge turning point for the character, giving Hemsworth not only the space to develop his hero, but also the freedom to let his creativity go wild. “I had a great relationship with Taika, and we had a great sense of humor and banter with us. And I thought, let’s make sure we cram that into this space. And the character he played of Korg then was there. So it was kind of a lot of him and I improvising, as our most truthful version of ourselves.”
Ever since Ragnarok, Hemsworth hasn’t looked back. We’re now looking ahead to Thor: Love and Thunder, which appears to take the fun to another level. Prepare yourselves for another action-packed and hilarious cosmic adventure:
Thor: Love and Thunder will release in theaters on July 8.
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