After having appeared in three solo movies and four Avengers films, you would be forgiven for thinking playing Thor must be the easiest job in the world for Chris Hemsworth. However, in a recent interview, the actor explained how every time he plays the role, he has to reinvent the God of Thunder in some way so audiences don’t get bored of him. With Thor: Love and Thunder being his eighth movie, Hemsworth is starting to think that perhaps his time in the MCU is coming to an end.
As one of the few original Avengers still in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Hemsworth has seen his character develop a lot over the last decade. From his middle-of-the-road origins in Thor and Thor: The Dark World to the bombastic Thor: Ragnarok, Thor has always been a fan favorite. This looks set to continue in his latest outing, which sees most of the Ragnarok team back together along with Natalie Portman back as Jane Foster/The Mighty Thor. For Hemsworth, though, his franchise future is very much unknown. He told Wired:
"Well the last [Marvel movie] I shot was 'Thor: Love and Thunder' and it might be my last Marvel movie, I don't know. It was a wild and fun and wacky experience, as all Taika Waititi movies are. Played that character for ten, eleven, years now, and each time it's been new and exciting, and this was no exception to that. It felt very fresh and it felt like we were trying something we hadn't tried before. I was, in Taika's words, I think a wacky, wild, romantic comedy set in space... I love playing Thor – played it for many many years and would continue to do so if people wanted me to. The most challenging part of playing Thor is reinventing it each time and not having it be predictable for an audience and having it be something they've seen before... And that is a challenge but part of the fun."
Thor: Love And Thunder Picks Up Straight After Avengers: Endgame
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Although there are a few Phase Four movies that don’t have perfectly set timelines, Thor: Love and Thunder catches up with the God of Thunder after he hitched a ride with the Guardians of the Galaxy following the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame. Wanting to leave being a superhero behind, Thor seems to be “finding himself” at the start of the movie, but is soon drawn back into battle with the arrival of Gorr the God Butcher, a terrifying new threat played by Christian Bale.
Where Thor will be by the end of the movie is something that we need to wait and find out when it arrives in theaters on July 7, but there have been a lot of old hands passing on their torches recently or talking about doing so soon. Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston have all spoken about only being able to take their characters too far before passing over to a new generation of characters and actors. While this has seemingly already started with the introduction of the likes of Kate Bishop and the upcoming She-Hulk series, there is no telling when Thor will also hand over his role in the MCU to someone new.