Chris Hemsworth Opens Up About Thor: Love and Thunder's Weak Reviews: "It Just Became Too Silly"

Hopes for Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel Studios' fourth Thor movie, were high after the success of Thor: Ragnarok, which seemed to breathe new life into the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of the Asgardian God of Thunder. Taika Waititi, who directed Ragnarok, returned to helm the sequel. Chris Hemsworth seemed to enjoy Waititi's take on Thorenough to become the first member of the original MCU Avengers team to star in a fourth solo movie. But Thor: Love and Thunder opened in 2022 to a much more mixed reception than Thor: Ragnarok, earning a lower Rotten Tomatoes score than the oft-maligned Thor: The Dark World. 

Speaking to GQ, Hemsworth opened up about Thor: Love and Thunder's reception, saying that even his children's friends criticized the movie to his face. "It's a bunch of eight-year-olds critiquing my film," Hemsworth said. "'We thought this one had too much humor, the action was cool but the VFX weren't as good.' I cringe and laugh equally at it. I think we just had too much fun. It just became too silly. It's always hard being in the center of it and having any real perspective… I love the process, it's always a ride. But you just don't know how people are going to respond."

Thor's Future In the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Thor: Ragnarok gave the Thor film series a stylistic reboot, but Thor: God of Thunder couldn't carry that energy with the same level of success. Hemsworth has previously said that he feels another reset may be needed if Marvel wants to keep making Thor movies.

"I mean you look at Thor 1 and 2  they were quite similar. Ragnarok and Love & Thunder: similar. I think it's just about re-inventing it," Hemsworth said during an episode of Josh Horowitz's Happy, Sad, Confused podcast in November. "And I've had such a unique opportunity even with [Avengers] Infinity War and Endgame to do very drastic things with the character; I enjoy that, I like keeping people on their toes, it keeps me on my toes, keeps me invested. And I've said this before: when it becomes too familiar, I think there's a risk of getting lazy I think, like 'Ah, I know what I'm doing,' you know? So I don't know – again, I don't even know if I'm invited back. But if I was, I think it'd have to be a drastically different version – tone, everything. Just for my own sanity [laughs]." 

Thor: Love and Thunder is streaming now on Disney+ and is available on home media.