Team Thor

• 1. The New Zealand Film Board

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  Team Thor arrived at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con with a title card featuring a grainy, VHS-style logo. A credit line attributed it to something called the "New Zealand Film Board." The audience saw Thor, the God of Thunder, in an unexpected context. The filmmaker was Taika Waititi, who had just been hired to direct Thor: Ragnarok. This was not a trailer. It was a mockumentary, bundled as a bonus feature on a Blu-ray release. What the clip raised, above all, was a question: what is Thor actually like when no one needs saving?

• 2. A Month Before Ragnarok

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  Filming for Team Thor wrapped one month before Thor: Ragnarok began production in July 2016. That proximity was not coincidence. Waititi's 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows had used documentary conventions to follow vampire flatmates in New Zealand. He brought the same format to Thor.

  Waititi had noted that many fans were uncertain about his new tonal direction for the franchise. He said later the short "helped us a lot." It gave audiences a preview of "just how irreverent we were gonna be, and just how different we were making Thor, and Bruce Banner as well." The short worked as a public declaration of creative intent before the main film could carry that weight.

  Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, described the shorts in October 2017 as a "doable" version of the studio's earlier One-Shot series. He said they had "in some parts helped redefine Thor into what he's become in Ragnarok in a fun way." In September 2016, Waititi said he expected Darryl Jacobson would probably be seen again, hinting that there might be "other little pieces of Team Thor that may just be a small part of a bigger thing."

• 3. Three Films, One Flatmate

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  The first short was released on the digital home media of Captain America: Civil War in September 2016. It carries a second title: While You Were Fighting: A Thor Mockumentary. Thor has saved Earth and moved in with an Australian office worker named Darryl Jacobson. A film crew documents their arrangement. Thor visits a kindergarten classroom and attempts to send emails to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers about their ongoing conflict. He also builds an investigative board connecting the Infinity Stones, the Avengers, Nick Fury, and Thanos. After Bruce Banner receives a phone call from Stark that excludes Thor, Thor decides to form his own team. He names it after himself. Darryl is the only other member.

  The second film was released on the home media of Doctor Strange in February 2017. Its subtitle is Where Are They Now? The domestic arrangement has become more strained. Darryl handles most of the cleaning. Thor dismisses the idea of looking for a job and counters by proposing they hire a servant. He attempts to pay rent with Asgardian currency. The segment ends with Thor stating he needs no one else but Darryl and suggesting that Darryl acquire a superhero outfit.

  Jeff Goldblum plays the Grandmaster in Team Darryl, the character he had portrayed in Thor: Ragnarok. The film was released on digital download on the 20th of February 2018 and on Blu-ray on the 6th of March. It is set after the events of Ragnarok and continues directly from the film's post-credits scene. Thor has moved out, and Darryl relocates to Los Angeles. He advertises for a new roommate. The Grandmaster is the only person who responds. He puts Darryl to work as a personal assistant: driving, taking out the trash, appearing in promotional videos. The Grandmaster has grown accustomed to Earth and plans to take it over, with Darryl at his side. He creates a video explaining his plan and posts it online. After it receives no views, he decides to advertise it with a second video featuring a musical guest. He enlists Darryl's friends to help, but melts one of them when his expectations go unmet. Darryl confesses to the camera that he is unsure whether he might be next, and admits that he misses Thor.

• 4. What Critics Said

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  Ethan Anderton of /Film called Team Thor "hilarious" while acknowledging it was "a silly little short." Don Kaye at Syfy Wire called it "one of the best movies Marvel has ever made." Ross A. Lincoln of Deadline Hollywood called it one of the biggest highlights from Marvel's Comic-Con panel and said he hoped the short pointed to Ragnarok's overall quality. Germain Lussier at io9 wrote that Ragnarok would be remarkable if it had "an iota of this humor."

  Tommy Cook of Collider felt the film "perfectly captured Waititi's irreverent sense of humor" and praised Hemsworth's comedic abilities. His colleague Adam Chitwood noted "a number of really funny touches" and described Hemsworth and Waititi as a strong comedic pairing.

  Aaron Couch at The Hollywood Reporter called Part 2 "the sequel no one could accuse of suffering from sequelitis." Nathalie Caron of Syfy Wire, writing ahead of Part 2's release, called it "using the same brand of humor that made the first... such a massive hit with fans everywhere." Alexandra August at Comic Book Resources called Team Darryl "just as hilarious as the Team Thor installments before it, if a little (way) more disturbing." Anderton later wrote that short films in the same format could serve as a replacement for the Marvel One-Shot series.

• 5. Darryl After the Credits

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  In August 2018, Daley Pearson released a video reprising his role as Darryl, separate from any official Marvel home media release. Darryl reports that he survived the Blip from Avengers: Infinity War but is now working weekends to cover for co-workers who did not. He also wishes Thor a happy birthday and asks him to transfer money, as he has fallen into debt.

  Marvel made all three shorts available on Disney+ in January 2022 and officially classified them as One-Shots, placing them sixth through eighth in that short film series.

  Daley Pearson returned as Darryl in Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022, playing him as a tour guide in New Asgard. In April 2019, Chris Hemsworth had expressed interest in doing more Team Thor short films and named a television series as a possibility.