Chris Hemsworth Discusses His Problem With Recent Marvel Movies

While half of the original six have been phased out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Hemsworth remains standing. The Aussie actor has been portraying Thor for over a decade now, debuting as the God of Thunder in Thor (2011) and reprising that role in four future Avengers films and three subsequent sequels in his solo franchise. While his arc occupies nearly a third of the grand universe, Thor Odinson is far from involved in every Marvel Studios story. Considering his film schedule, this means Hemsworth does not get around to catching every new MCU release, but there was one recent offering that he was quite impressed by.

Speaking to GQ, Hemsworth noted that he saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and thought that it was “really cool.” That said, he did not get around to seeing the following MCU installment, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. After asking GQ’s Hannah-Rose Yee what she thought of it, to which Yee questioned why they made it such a big story, Hemsworth mentioned that those looming doomsday threats have become over-saturated.

“That’s the trick: you have to separate all those stories,” Hemsworth said. “The moment it’s like, ‘Your world is in danger, the entire universe!’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, so [it] was the last 24 films.’ It has to become a bit more personal and grounded.” 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania did emphasize that “entire universe” threat with Jonathan Majors’s Kang the Conqueror. This all-powerful Quantum Realm tyrant attempted to utilize Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man to fix his multiversal power core in order to escape his microscopic prison and resume conquering timelines. While that threat never made it out of the Quantum Realm, as Kang was defeated by a battalion of large ants, the battles that went down within that dimension were played out as having the “entire universe” at stake.

As Hemsworth points out the value of “more personal and grounded” stories, it’s worth noting that the two most positively received MCU releases in recent memory did just that. The aforementioned Wakanda Forever put a spotlight on Letitia Wright’s Shuri and the entire Wakandan nation dealing with the loss of T’Challa, while this past May’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 told the tale of one group of heroes simply trying to save their friend.

It is currently unknown as to if or when Hemsworth will return as Thor. His latest Marvel appearance, Thor: Love and Thunder, is now streaming on Disney+.