One of the few justified complaints about Avengers: Infinity War is that it skates over the events of last fall’s excellent Thor: Ragnarok. After all, Taika Waititi’s film ended with the surviving Asgardians searching for a new home, complete with an inspiring declaration that their kingdom was not the physical place destroyed by Sutur in the climax, but existed in their hearts and minds.
Noble stuff – but slightly less so given that the vast majority of Asgardian hearts and minds are now floating in bloody chunks through the cosmos after Thanos and his minions slaughtered them soon after the movie’s end. Also, the absence of Valkyrie and Korg from Infinity War was a bit disappointing – as was the fact that Thor’s cool eyepatch look lasted for about 5 minutes.
But, it turns out that rather than ignoring Ragnarok, Infinity War was actually re-written to accommodate it. The news comes from co-writer Stephen McFeeley, who said the following in a recent interview:
“We changed a few scenes early on because Hemsworth had just done Thor: Ragnarok and was concerned. He was like, ‘Listen, guys, I’ve been in Australia and we’re doing crazy stuff!”
It seems that Hemsworth was worried that the Infinity War script was written with the (slightly) more serious Thor of his first two solo movies in mind rather than the actor’s more overtly comic performance in Ragnarok, and that audiences would want some continuity. Anyone who’s seen Infinity War will know they made the right call, as Hemsworth is easily able to hold his own against the combined wits of the Guardians of the Galaxy, while still managing to inject just the right note of pathos at all the death and destruction he’s witnessed over the last few weeks.
In a movie full of great things, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor stands out as one of the best. He’s badass, he’s funny and he’s a well-rounded character. Credit to both McFeely and his writing partner Christopher Markus then for going out of their way to ensure that he was recognizably his post-Ragnarok self. Even if Avengers: Infinity War could have used just a little more Korg.
