Chris Hemsworth Dishes On Thor's Loki-Less Journey In AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
Possibly hinting at a 2017 release for Thor 3, Chris Hemsworth discusses returning as the God of Thunder in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and for the first time without Tom Hiddleston's Loki!
When BuzzFeed visited the set of Avengers: Age of Ultron earlier this year, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans were filming a battle scene as Thor and Captain America, respectively, in a fictional city of Sokovia, which writer/director Joss Whedon described as a "miserable place; everywhere robots." The scene involved extras fleeing as Ultron's robot army attacks, and Captain America "kicks his shield into the air just in time for Thor to thwack it with his trademark hammer, slicing it through a pack of robots." Given the robots and Cap's shield weren't actually present during the filming of the scene, and will casually be added to the scene later with CGI, Chris Hemsworth reminds himself, "The biggest thing is just not looking stupid." He added, "You’ve just got to remember there’s another 30 different stages that are going to come into it before anyone will see that on screen" On his familiarity with the character, the Aussie actor says, "You know the rhythm of it, [but] what becomes a challenge is trying to not repeat the same thing all the time. So you’ve got to work that bit harder to see what else you can do with the character."
Regarding what else Joss Whedon has planned for Thor to do in Avengers: Age of Ultron, besides helping to stop Ultron's growing power, Chris Hemsworth says "it was just lightening up a bit" this time around. "[Age of Ultron] gave us room to kind of make him a little more grounded and human and have him in some civilian clothes and mixing it up at a party. I want to do those scenes more. It’s what I loved about the first [Thor film]. There was an innocence and naïveté to him, which as he matured into the king of the second [Thor film] — or the rightful king — we sort of lost a little bit of that. That was that story." One major difference for Hemsworth is that Avengers: Age of Ultron will be his first time playing Thor without his evil half-brother Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston. "I mean, [I] loved working with Tom," says Hemsworth, "and that relationship is so much fun. But that also kept us in a bit of a box, because, you know, three films on one relationship, how much further can you go? What else can you do different? It was nice to have a whole different sort of motivation.”
When BuzzFeed pressed for details on Thor's motivation in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Chris Hemsworth would only tease that if Loki's actions brought the Avengers together, Ultron's worldwide ambitions would be to split them apart. "Whereas the first [Avengers] was [about] the journey of the team, I think, this time, you have six or seven things going on, which I was really impressed by," said Hemsworth. "I like where Thor has been taken in this. He sort of sees a whole other side to what’s going on in the conflict, and another potential threat. And he kind of segues a bit and has his own little sort of journey." On the physicality of the role, Chris Hemsworth admits "It’s not so much the staying in shape; Once you get to the shape, maintaining it — it’s work, but it’s less work than trying to get it off to do another role, or to put it back on when you start from scratch. That’s been tough." He then recalled how he filmed In the Heart of the Sea in between Thor: the Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and how it was a challenge to lose the weight and gain it back in three months for the latter Marvel sequel. However, s it's a challenge he will have to face again since he's confident that his next big movie "won’t be Thor 3 — that will be the following year." As BuzzFeed notes, Hemsworth doing Thor 3 in 2016 could mean the third installment will claim either the May 5, 2017 or November 3, 2017 release date that Disney currently has slotted for untitled Marvel movies. What do you think? >
Marvel Studios presents Avengers: Age of Ultron, the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to the Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure. Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision. Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963. Get set for an action-packed thrill ride when The Avengers return in Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1, 2015.