Avengers: Endgame Directors On Thor’s Big Changes And Ragnarok’s Impact

Thor has undergone several changes in recent films. In Thor: Ragnarok, he lost an eye. In Avengers: Infinity War, he took on a tremendous guilt and lost his lost remaining family members. In Avengers: Endgame, he got fat. These changes were all the result of a collaboration between Marvel Studios directors, especially involving Thor: Ragnarok helmer Taika Waititi.

Thor actor Chris Hemsworth took great pride on the version of the God of Thunder he and Waititi created in Ragnarok. As a result, the Russo Brothers had a solid collaboration with Waititi while working on Avengers: Endgame after crossing paths at Marvel Studios HQ.

“Probably running into Taiki [Waititi] when he was talking about Thor: Ragnarok and understanding what a radical direction he was going in,” Joe Russo told THR of the most influential encounter while direction Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. “That certainly informed some choices we made with Hemsworth on Infinity War. We had already crafted our own version of that character and then we found a way to integrate the level of humor that he was going to be playing with, but pulled it into the psychological realism that we like to filter everything through.”

Of course, Hemsworth had to be on board with the coming changes to his character, as well — and he was.

“He was on board,” Anthony Russo said. “We talked to him early on about it. That was born from us just thinking about, on an individual level, how each of the Avengers were moving forward from the moment at the end of Infinity War. How they were dealing with the pain of having lost to Thanos and the pain of losing everyone? We just started building. This came out of really intense sessions with the writers, Markus and McFeely. We just started circling this character, who was really blaming himself. If you look at the loss Thor suffers in Infinity War, it’s staggering. From the beginning of the film, when Thanos attacks his ship, kills Loki and Heimdall and much of his people. And all the way through to his failure to stop Thanos. We started thinking about how that would weigh on him and what that would do to him. We started circling this idea of depression and throwing that out in a way that we thought was really surprising and interesting.”

What did you think of Thor and his story in Avengers: Endgame? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter! Also, tune into ComicBook.com’s Game Over: An Evening With Joe Russo on May 6 for a chance to get more of your questions answered!

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters.