For nearly 50 years in the comics, Thor has mostly been depicted as being clean-shaven. The filmmakers did camera tests with Chris Hemsworth where he didn't have facial hair, but they decided the baby-faced 27-year-old looked more godlike with a beard.
The production team constructed an entire town in Galisteo, New Mexico, only for it to be trashed by "The Destroyer," Odin's behemoth bodyguard.
Hemsworth put on 30 pounds of godlike muscles. And that wasn't just from swinging around that super-powered hammer. He spent six months enduring a grueling regimen at the gym while bulking up with a diet of chicken, eggs, brown rice, and protein drinks. In fact, he got so big that he couldn't even fit in his Thor costume. My "hands started going numb . . . And I started getting pins and needles, and you'd touch the skin and the blood wouldn't return to the area so quick," said Hemsworth when he first tried on the chain-mail outfit
Originally, Tom Hiddleston auditioned for the role of Thor. For his screen test, he bulked up 20 pounds. But when Kenneth Branagh came on board to direct, he took Hiddleston out for breakfast. "I want you to play Loki," said Branagh. "Can you lose that 20 pounds?" Hiddleston kept a strict diet to stay thin while training in the Brazilian martial art capoeira
Kenneth Branagh was, by all accounts, a surprising choice as director for the superhero epic. Though most famous for his silver-screen adaptation of Shakespeare, Branagh was a longtime fan of the comic as a youth. When he signed on for the project, he was forced to resign as director of a stage production of "Hamlet," which starred Jude Law
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.