Up until Extraction landed on Netflix and quickly captured the Internet’s imagination, as well as being regarded as one of the year’s best action movies, there had always been doubts surrounding Chris Hemsworth’s ability to cut it as a leading man outside of his career-defining role as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor.
Blackhat, In the Heart of the Sea, The Huntsman: Winter’s War and Men in Black: International all disappointed at the box office with the Australian actor front-and-center, although it didn’t help that none of those movies were particularly good in their own right. But Taika Waititi cracked the formula when he managed to strike the balance between Hemsworth’s action chops and comedic timing in Thor: Ragnarok, and now we’ve heard that he could be following the director into a galaxy far, far away.
According to our intel – which comes from the same sources that told us last year that Ahsoka would be in The Mandalorian and that [SPOILERS] would be revealed as a traitor in The Rise of Skywalker – Hemsworth is the latest MCU alumni that’s reportedly being eyed for a major role in Kevin Feige’s in-development Star Wars project. And apparently, he’d be playing an original character, should he sign on.
Fellow superhero headliners Brie Larson and Tom Holland have also been heavily linked with the project, and while on the surface it might look like one embattled Disney franchise trying to rely on another that hasn’t split the fans right down the middle in recent years, for his first venture outside of the MCU, you can completely understand why Feige would be keen to surround himself with actors that he knows or trusts.
Of course, a delicate balance needs to be struck to stop it from becoming a full-blown MCU love-in, but the additions of both Feige and Waititi to the Star Wars universe looks to be a solid move on Disney’s part in trying to win over the fans that felt like they’ve been burned far too often over the last few years.
