Chris Hemsworth’s Thor has been a staple of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for over a decade, but it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows for the God of Thunder. The Australian actor was cast on 2011’s Thor as a relative unknown, and it wasn’t until 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok that the character really found his groove. Even before he joined Earth’s Mightiest ensemble, Hemsworth had major doubts about his longevity within Marvel Studios, even going as far to think that he believed he was “going to get fired” during the first film’s production.
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“It was a lot of nostalgia in [Thor: Love and Thunder] for me, as it was with the last Avengers film. Ten, eleven years I’ve been doing it. The first time I played Thor was opposite Natalie Portman, and it was one of my first jobs, and I kept thinking I was going to get fired, or nothing was gonna work, or fans weren’t going to accept my version of the character,” Hemsworth told Australia’s TODAY. “And if she thought I was any good, or I deserved to be there, or what have you.”
Acting opposite an Academy Award winner like Portman was quite the pressure back in the day, but with Hemsworth establishing himself as a box office powerhouse today, their reunion for Thor: Love and Thunder allowed for both actors and their respective characters to showcase their growth.
“So ten years later to reunite — both of us, our lives have dramatically changed in many ways. Also, the characters have changed,” Hemsworth continued. “I think Thor is in a very different place to where he was in the first film, and now we see Jane Foster come in, and has a whole bunch of superpowers and is a superhero herself. It made for some fun on-camera dynamics there.”
Love and Thunder marks the ninth MCU appearance for Hemsworth’s Thor and just the third for Portman’s Jane Foster. Jane previously starred alongside Hemsworth in the first two Thor installments, but did not return for 2017’s Ragnarok. Portman would make a brief appearance in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, but that cameo was done with recycled footage from 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. Her unofficial Marvel return came last fall, when she voiced Jane Foster in the animated What If…? series.
Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters next Friday, July 8.
