Thor and Avengers star Chris Hemsworth pulls no punches when discussing his solo franchise’s lukewarm middle installment, Thor: The Dark World, which he acknowledges was “meh.”
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“The first one is good, the second one is meh,” Hemsworth told GQ of his first and second solo outings, which took a more serious and Shakespearean approach to the beefy golden-haired demigod. “What masculinity was, the classic archetype — it just all starts to feel very familiar. I was so aware that we were right on the edge.”
Hemsworth, who had gone on to let loose his comedic chops in rebooted takes on Vacation and Ghostbusters, advocated his Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise embrace the less rigid personality expressed in the often-silly and cosmic-centric Guardians of the Galaxy series and also pushed for his Asgardian Avenger to let his hair down in his threequel — a trajectory Marvel Studios took literally, doing away with Thor‘s flowing golden locks and his famed trusty hammer Mjolnir.
The star was galvanized to push for the changes after hearing noted comic book fan and fanboy-friendly filmmaker Kevin Smith criticize the stuffy franchise, telling Vanity Fair, “Hearing someone like Smith, who represents the fanboy world, was such a kick in the ass to change gears.”
Hemsworth admitted during a Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance that, after four tries at the character in a pair of Thor and Avengers movies, he had grown “bored” with playing the hammer-swinging superhero, was semi-rebooted under What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople director Taika Waititi in the Thor threequel.
In approaching the third installment of the stale franchise, the pair aimed to “break everything we know and destroy it and rebuild it,” taking a not-so-serious and frivolous approach that resulted in one of the MCU’s most well-received blockbusters to date.
“Every day was about exploring the unknown and trying something different,” Hemsworth said. “I had got pretty bored of myself as that character and so did he, maybe a few people out there, so we thought, ‘Let’s do something different.’ And every day was improvised and a journey into somewhere we hadn’t been before.”
Hemsworth has since said he hopes to stay on as Thor post-Avengers 4, which currently marks the end of his contractual duties with Marvel Studios.
Avengers 4 opens May 3, 2019.
