An end-credits stinger in Doctor Strange notwithstanding, Marvel’s Norse god has been totally absent from the MCU since 2013, when The Dark World teed up a grueling, multi-dimensional fight against the Dark Elves.
Four years later, and after bidding farewell to Jane Foster, Chris Hemsworth’s towering Asgardian will soon be back, back, back thanks to the release of Thor: Ragnarok, and all signs point to Taika Waititi delivering one of the best-looking entries into the MCU to date.
When accounting for those two appearances across The Avengers and its somewhat divisive sequel, Age of Ultron, Ragnarok will take Hemsworth’s MCU tally to five. But as the Aussie actor revealed to American fashion magazine W (via Screen Rant), things could have panned out very differently, as Liam Hemsworth was also in the mix for Marvel’s God of Thunder early on in the creative process.
At the time, Kenneth Branagh was overseeing the development of Marvel’s first Thor movie, and despite leaving the audition with a spring in his step, Chris Hemsworth admitted that “months went by” before Marvel responded…to his younger brother.
I came into the audition with Kenneth Branagh and thought I nailed it and then never heard anything back. Months went by and then my brother, my little brother, Liam, was in Australia and sent a tape across and he got a call back, then another call back and then was down to the last kind of four or five people for it. I remember sitting in Vancouver, shooting Cabin in the Woods with Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon. Both of them were looking at the trades at this sort of top five guys for Thor and saying, ‘Why aren’t you in the mix here? What happened?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I blew my audition I guess.’
Still shooting Cabin in the Woods at the time with Joss Whedon (Justice League, Batgirl), the older Hemsworth then admitted that some good-natured sibling rivalry helped spark his motivation.
I came in kind of with a little, I guess, motivation and maybe frustration that my little brother had gotten further than me. It’s a little family, sibling rivalry sort of kicked up in me. Then it moved pretty quick from there. It was cool.
With Chris Hemsworth in the title role, Thor: Ragnarok will be with us on November 3rd.