It seems Chris Hemsworth might be swapping Thor’s hammer for a royal jacket, following news that the actor is in talks to portray Prince Charming in Disney’s live-action film.
While the Australian heartthrob is already considered Prince Charming in everything but name among legions of thirsty fans (myself included), he could soon be given the official title as part of the in-development film. Details beyond Hemsworth being “in talks” to take on the role remain under wraps, and it’s not yet known if any other actors are also on the cards.
Should it be him who heads to the steps of the palace and whisks some lucky princess off her feet, Hemsworth will portray the title character of the Disney film. Some reports suggest that Prince Charming will be live-action, in keeping with Disney’s somewhat tiresome reboot trend of late, but that too is yet to be confirmed.
As for the details we do know… well, that’s about as scarce as the food Cinderella’s mice try to scavenge for. We do know that Prince Charming has tapped a director in the form of Paul King, the man behind the utterly adorable Paddington franchise and last year’s at-times terrifying Wonka. We also know that Horrible Histories and Paddington 2 screenwriter Simon Farnby, and Paddington writer Jon Croker, are on board to pen the script.
In another morsel of intel, Deadline reports that Prince Charming will not be specifically linked to Cinderella, so all your hopes of a Hemsworth pashing scene might just be dashed. The reason that princess’ name comes up is that the character of Prince Charming has his origins in Disney’s 1950 classic Cinderella, with the male love interests in subsequent films only referred to as Prince.
There’s very little lore surrounding Prince Charming beyond him being a swoon-worthy savior of Cinderella, so whoever gets the role ought to bring a whole lot of charisma, which is the case for the few actors who have portrayed him in the past. If he takes on the role, Hemsworth will join the likes of Josh Dallas, who portrayed Prince Charming in the TV series Once Upon A Time, and Richard Madden, who donned the royal suit in 2015’s live-action Cinderella opposite Lily James.
Oh, there was also Rupert Everett, who voiced Prince Charming in the Shrek franchise. While it’s not a part of the Disney universe Hemsworth might be joining, I still think he’d benefit from some notes from Everett’s scene-stealing portrayal. Hemsworth of course has loads of experience working within sprawling cinematic universes and franchises, having starred in everything from Avengers to Transformers, to Mad Max and Extraction.
If anyone’s suffering from sequel fatigue, it’s probably him. In any case, the last we heard about Prince Charming was in 2019, when the script was being handled by Minions and The Super Mario Bros Movie’s Matt Fogel. This more recent flurry of developments feels promising, especially for those who’ve probably outgrown Disney fairytales but nonetheless need a nice serving of hunks on the big screen every once and a while. I’ll be your princess, Chris!