It appears that Thor may not have even been a part of the Avengers movie series if it hadn’t been for Chris Hemsworth. The writers were said to be ‘not sold’ on the character until Hemsworth came along.
Chris Hemsworth has seen his career boom following his casting as Thor but according to one of the co-writers for The Avengers, he almost wasn’t even required.
Zak Penn has said that he initially had his doubts over the God of Thunder’s ability to translate his role from the comic books and onto the big screen. He said that whilst the original Avengers script was being finalised, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were still being written and there were questions of Thor’s involvement.
However, Penn says that “once it was clear that this was going to work then I stopped doing that (reducing Thor in the script)” and kept it as normal.
Even the director of the Thor film said that he felt the pressure going into the film and ensuring that it was a big success.
Penn has attributed the success of the character to the casting team saying that when he first saw Chris Hemsworth walking through the offices his immediate thought was, “that guy IS Thor.”
It is difficult to now imagine the films without Thor and Chris Hemsworth following their enormous success. Even more so given the fact that the success of Thor is what encouraged Marvel Studios to produce Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014.
Guardians of the Galaxy was so successful that he even received two Oscar Nominations for Visual Effects and hair and makeup. The film also won numerous awards at other events.
Despite initial concerns that the films did not meet their targets, even though the casting of Chris Hemsworth has been so widely praised, Thor made a return to success with Thor: Ragnarok released in 2017.
This was the third installment of the Thor series and was the highest grossing film of the lot falling just short of the US$1 billion mark at US$854 million.
Taiku Waititi, a New Zealand director, used comedy and a slightly drier tone to please the audience.
Unfortunately, we are unsure how much more of Chris Hemsworth as Thor we will be seeing with the actor’s contract set to run out in 2019 following the release of Avengers 4.