There were a lot of Marvel fans excited to see Russell Crowe take on the role of Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder, but it seems that his appearance in the latest MCU movie could have been a lot different as a piece of concept art has revealed. While there has been plenty of people happy to see Crowe’s depiction of the Greek god, it turns out that one original idea would have seen Crowe appearing as a comedic version of Satan.
Concept artist Miles Teves posted two images that he created on request when there was a possibility of Satan featuring in the movie instead of Zeus, and it has to be said that there is something of The Office’s David Brent aka Ricky Gervais about one of the images, which may or may not have been the deciding factor on why they decided Zeus would be a better option to go with. In his posts Teves explained:
“I was told by the good folks at Odd Studio down in Australia who commissioned this art that Russell Crowe might be having a comedic cameo as Satan in the new 'Thor: Love & Thunder'. It didn't work out that way. Hopefully it wasn't because he saw my drawings. Though I'd understand.”
“Another shot at old Russ as the Devil for 'Thor: Love & Thunder'. The folks at Odd Studio told me to depict him at his current weight due to his character being humorously debauched. Naturally I would have modelled for this drawing myself were my current physique not so rippling and sveldt.”
Chris Hemsworth Had Plenty of Praise for Crowe’s Zeus
As it turned out, Crowe’s take on the Greek deity has mostly received praise from audiences for the fun appearance, which includes a few winks towards the actor’s previous historical role in Gladiator. Even if audiences hadn’t been taken with the performance, one person who clearly was happy to see him boarding the movie was Chris Hemsworth. In a previous interview, Hemsworth said:
"I never thought I'd see the day where Russell would appear on screen with hints at Gladiator imagery, yet with a wink-totally self-deprecating. He didn't hold back. I'm such a fan. I have been since I first started acting. There's such a weight and a seriousness to his performances and to him, as an individual, from afar. But meeting him, he has a great sense of humor and did whatever Taika asked on set, which was mind-blowing. And it was really fun to play with the mythology, going from Norse to Greek mythology – Taika pulls all these worlds together.”
We can only image how all of this may have changed if those early plans to have Crowe playing Satan had panned out, but with Taika Waititi having claimed from the start that this movie was one of the “most bonkers things” he has ever been allowed to do, it is probably not too outlandish of an idea to have worked in the movie if it had come to be.