Judging by the massive box office numbers, the majority of people seem to love Avengers: Endgame. There are also, however, many fans who are dissatisfied with aspects of the film. For instance, Lacey-Jade Christie, a freelance writer and “The Fat Collective” podcaster, recently took issue with how Thor’s noticeable weight gain was played for laughs.
The normally robust superhero deteriorates to an overweight, slovenly mess after Thanos eradicates half of the universe. Thor’s trauma turns him into a shell of himself, which provides some strange comic relief for the audience during the three-hour film. The route was certainly an unexpected and interesting one to take, but now Christie and others on the internet are voicing their displeasure with the decision.
They aren’t the only ones unhappy with that particular storyline, though. The cast and crew of the movie also were pretty upset about it. The writers’ comments on the matter, however, only provide more fuel for those who think Avengers: Endgame was shaming fat people:
“There was a sad moment where it was like, ‘We’ve got this gross, disguising body for Thor now. And then they unveiled it and it’s just kind of like everybody else’s body here. There were many people on set who were angry at us about doing that to Thor. He kills the biggest bad guy in the MCU and it’s such a failure. It breaks him completely.”
Talking about how Thor had a “fat, disgusting body” clearly proves that the writers think being overweight is funny. The discussion is an interesting one to have, considering that Marvel has tried to become more inclusive in recent years. By purposely mocking and therefore potentially ostracizing a large segment of the population in Avengers: Endgame, the studio may not be doing itself many favors.
Then again, this mini-controversy likely won’t lead to any ramifications for Disney and the Russo brothers. Hopefully, though, they’ll take this criticism to heart and be more aware of their portrayals of both fatness and depression in the future.
