According to Taika Waititi, there’s an ongoing debate about whether or not to keep Thor fat. Waititi, who directed Thor: Ragnarok and who will return to helm Thor: Love and Thunder, explained that there’s a revealing question at the heart of what otherwise might be a mostly aesthetic detail.
The transformation for Thor hasn’t been merely physical, though. While he’s always had his supports, and while audiences have been fond of Chris Hemsworth’s performance as the hammer-wielding Avenger, it wasn’t until the third installment that the franchise earned glowing reviews. As imagined by Waititi, Ragnarok was a delightful explosion of color and weirdness which managed to tap into Hemsworth’s natural charm without ever undermining the strength of the hero he portrayed. Thor would continue to wow audiences in Infinity War, looking like an extremely formidable opponent for Thanos. In Endgame, Thor is initially quietly enraged over his inability to defeat Thanos. Then, he just gets depressed. The mindset is reflected when his character is revealed, after a time jump, with an unkempt beard and a very visible beer gut.
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During an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Waititi was asked if Thor would still be packing those extra pounds for Love and Thunder. While he was mainly promoting Jojo Rabbit, and while he has been somewhat secret about his next MCU project, Waititi did offer a revealing response. He said that Thor’s physique would likely depend on how many months, or even years, had passed between the events of Endgame and Love and Thunder. Read his quote, in full, below.
“This is an ongoing debate that we’re still having at Marvel. Cause we’re trying to figure out how long - how many months or years - this is after Endgame, at what point does this take place?”
Waititi stops short of saying anything completely definitive. He’s quick to mention how he likes to mix it up with Thor, as that keeps things interesting. As funny and as unexpected as the reveal of an out of shape Thor was, and as many memes as it inspired, it was another layer which helped to humanize a character that many viewed as the most distant of all the Avengers. In Endgame, with his beer gut and his messy beard, and his reluctance to rejoin the fight for good, Thor actually got to mourn his losses. Among the film’s many accomplishments, perhaps even a bit undernoted, was how it retroactively justified the death of Thor’s mother and brought back Renee Russo in a great cameo. It retroactively improved the MCU’s worst-reviewed film, as well.
In other words, after Ragnarok and after his improved standing in the eyes of fans, Thor won’t be in need of a drastic character change in Love and Thunder. He may even be back to his old self. And depending on the timeline, it may make sense that Thor is back in shape. Regardless of how it ultimately plays out on screen, Thor has gone through quite the transformation in more than just one sense: he’s gone from having, by many accounts, the least-liked franchise to getting the distinction of being the first MCU character to receive a forth solo movie. Given that Taika Waititi is directing once again, Thor: Love and Thunder is likely to keep the good times rolling.
Source: Yahoo! Entertainment
- Black Widow (2020) release date: May 01, 2020
- Eternals (2020) release date: Nov 06, 2020
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) release date: Feb 12, 2021
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2021) release date: May 07, 2021
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2021) release date: Nov 05, 2021
- Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 (2021) release date: Jul 16, 2021
- Black Panther 2 (2022) release date: May 06, 2022
