After portraying Thor as fat, beer-bellied, flabby and out-of-shape in his last big screen appearence in Avengers: Endgame (2019), Chris Hemsworth is bouncing back with a vegance - achieving his biggest physique ever for his 4th solo Thor adventure, Thor: Love And Thunder (2022). Hemsworth had been teasing his new ultra-buff physique in the ramp up to the start of filming, and set photos have confirmed it his biggest shape ever.
His longtime trainer, Luke Zocchi, gushed to Australian podcast hosts Fitzy & Wippa on 1st Feburary 2021, "Mate, he is in phenomenal knick. He's the biggest he has ever been. It's ridiculous. He's actually the heaviest he's ever been. We weighed him the other day, he was 105 kilos (231 pounds)." Asked about the diet needed to maintain this extent of muscle mass, Zocchi said, "He eats clean, it's just the amount of food! He's eating every 2 hour - I will run him a 450 calorie meal. He eats 8 times a day while we are filming. So every 2 hours, I am runnung him chicken and rice and a little bit of veggies."
While MCU fans are undoubtedly delighted, not everyone is as happy. Hemsworth longtime friend, training partner and stunt double Bobby Holland Hanton told Fitzy & Wippa on 8th February 2021, "Everyone's like - Wow! Look at the size of him. I am like - Yes, brilliant. Now I have to put on that size as well. I text him, I'm like - Thanks very much dude, it's going to be even harder this time."
Hanton noted he's up for the challenge, though it does require a lot of eating - "He's the biggest Thor he's ever been. So I have to be biggest I have ever been. Every 2 hours we are eating, it has become a chore. It's just getting calories in, training twice a day. It's full on." And all the added muscle does begin to weigh on you - "We are training so much and we are packing on so much size, its difficult on the body. I find that carrying around the extra weight is difficult and hard on the ligaments."
Nevertheless, he said Hemsworth is coping just fine - "He's all good. I mean look at him, he's a man mountain. He's fit as a fiddle."
Thor: Love and Thunder hammers its way into theaters May 6, 2022. Click HERE for more Thor: Love and Thunder news from CBM!