Chris Hemsworth Says He “Became a Parody” in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
While 2023 was undeniably the first truly “bad” year in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the cracks in Marvel’s armor began to show in 2022.
That year saw the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder, two films that should have been easy wins for Marvel.
Photo: Marvel
Despite their well-established characters, famous lead actors, and success at the box office, neither film managed to live up to the lofty expectations that Marvel fans had set for them.
Photo: Marvel
Of the two, Thor: Love and Thunder was the most disappointing.
Thor Jumped the Shark in ‘Love and Thunder’
Coming off the universally lauded Thor: Ragnarok, the God of Thunder’s future seemed to be in good hands with a reinvigorated Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi returning to direct.
Thor: Ragnarok had been a marked shift for the franchise, as Hemsworth was allowed to come out of his shell and be funny. After the almost Shakespearean Thor in Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok leaned into humor and irreverence in a way that not only let Hemsworth shine but breathed new life into the stale Thor franchise that the actor had grown frustrated with.
Photo: Marvel
“Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team,” he told Vanity Fair. “I would read everyone else’s lines, and go, ‘Oh, they got way cooler stuff. They’re having more fun. What’s my character doing?’ It was always about, ‘You’ve got the wig on. You’ve got the muscles. You’ve got the costume. Where’s the lighting?’ Yeah, I’m part of this big thing, but I’m probably pretty replaceable.”
“I Became a Parody of Myself”
Then came Thor: Love and Thunder. Doubling down on what Marvel and Waititi thought fans loved about Ragnarok, Love and Thunder jumped the shark. The film was goofy and irreverent to the point that it undermined any real stakes and destroyed the emotional narrative that should have been at the heart of the film.
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While the film still managed to gross $760 million at the box office, it failed to match the success of Ragnarok. The schtick had grown old.
In the same interview with Vanity Fair, Hemsworth admitted that the tone of Love and Thunder was a mistake. One that still haunts him.
Photo: Marvel
“I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself,” he says. “I didn’t stick the landing.”
Will There Be a ‘Thor 5’?
Since the release of Love and Thunder, Hemsworth has been clear that he believes the film was “too silly.” Should the actor return for a fifth standalone film movie, the tone will have to change.
“I don’t want to continue to do it until people are so exhausted that they roll their eyes when they see me come on the screen as that character,” Hemsworth told Entertainment Weekly last year.
“If an audience wants to see it, and if there’s something that we believe is exciting and fun, then great. I’ve loved being able to reinvent that character a few times. I don’t have the answer yet, but I would love to try and [figure out] how we can do that again and keep it a little unpredictable.”
Hopefully, then, Thor has another reinvention in him, and we see the God of Thunder return again. Hemsworth, for one, feels like he owes the fans another movie.
I agree 100%
LOVE AND THUNDER was way to silly.
It was my least favorite of the Thor movies.
I agree! I actually really liked the first two Thor movies and their almost Shakespearean tone. Ragnarok was a lot of fun too, but the humor complimented a really good story. I though Love and Thunder’s tone undermined the whole narrative.