Thor (film)

• 1. Introduction

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  Thor, the 2011 Marvel Studios superhero film, opened its world premiere at the Event Cinemas theatre on George Street in Sydney on the 17th of April 2011. A Norse god stripped of his powers, exiled to a small New Mexico town, and hunted by an indestructible automaton sent by his own brother: the premise sounds absurd on paper. Yet the film that emerged from more than a decade of false starts and abandoned drafts would earn $449.3 million worldwide and launch one of the most-watched acting careers in superhero cinema. How did a project once destined for television, written and rewritten by half a dozen different hands, become a film where Anthony Hopkins plays the king of Asgard, Natalie Portman plays an astrophysicist, and Tom Hiddleston plays a character described as a comic-book Edmund from King Lear? The answers stretch back to 1991, pass through the offices of studios that passed on the idea, and arrive at a director whose primary credential was Shakespeare.

• 2. Two Decades in Development

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  Sam Raimi first conceived a Thor film after completing Darkman in 1990. He met Thor co-creator Stan Lee and pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox, but they did not grasp it, and the project was dropped. It surfaced again in April 1997 as Marvel Studios was beginning to expand, and gained momentum after the success of X-Men in 2000. At that stage the plan was not a theatrical release at all: UPN was in talks to air a television version, and the network pushed for a script and approached Tyler Mane to play the title role.

  In May 2000, Marvel brought in Artisan Entertainment to finance a film version instead, but by June 2004 no studio had committed to the project. Sony Pictures Entertainment eventually purchased the rights, and by December 2004 David S. Goyer was in negotiations to write and direct. By 2005 Goyer was no longer interested, though the film was still set to be distributed through Sony at that point.

  Mark Protosevich, a self-described fan of the Thor comics, agreed to write the script in April 2006. The project then moved to Paramount Pictures after it acquired the rights from Sony, and that year the film was formally announced as a Marvel Studios production. In December 2007, Protosevich described his ambition as telling a story about "an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god". His draft placed the action in the Middle Ages, with Thor enslaved by Norsemen before being rescued by Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, and carried an estimated production cost of $300 million.

  Matthew Vaughn was signed to direct in August 2007, rewrote Protosevich's script to bring the budget down to $150 million, and targeted a June 2010 release. After Iron Man's success, Marvel confirmed that film would be used to introduce the character of Thor. But Vaughn's holding deal expired in May 2008, and his departure sent the project back into flux, with Guillermo del Toro, D. J. Caruso, and others entering and exiting negotiations before Kenneth Branagh was approached later that autumn.

• 3. Branagh's Shakespearean Bet

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  By December 2008, Branagh confirmed he had been hired, and he framed the project not as a spectacle film but as "a human story right in the center of a big epic scenario". He had been a fan of the comics since childhood, and he brought a theatrical vocabulary to a production that would span two worlds. The challenge, as he put it, was finding "the framing style, the color palette, finding the texture and the amount of camera movement" that could make Asgard and modern New Mexico coexist in the same film.

  Guilluermo del Toro had already named the appeal and the complication: del Toro loved the character of Loki and wanted to incorporate more original Norse mythology, including a "really dingy Valhalla, with Vikings and mud". But he ultimately turned the film down to direct The Hobbit. Daniel Craig was offered the leading role and declined, citing his commitments to the James Bond franchise.

  Branagh's casting philosophy drew directly on his stage background. He chose Tom Hiddleston for Loki after working with him on Ivanov and Wallander, and instructed Hiddleston to study Peter O'Toole in The Lion in Winter and Lawrence of Arabia. The goal was the emotional volatility Branagh described as living "with a layer of skin peeled away". Branagh wanted Loki to have "a lean and hungry look, like Cassius in Julius Caesar", and Hiddleston maintained a strict diet before filming began to achieve it.

  Colm Feore, cast as Frost Giant king Laufey, noted that the Shakespearean training he shared with Hopkins and Branagh shortened communication on set considerably. During breaks, he said, the three of them could discuss character in "Shakespearean shorthand", turning what might have been hour-long explanations into exchanges of a few minutes between takes. Anthony Hopkins, for his part, said the film was "a superhero movie, but with a bit of Shakespeare thrown in", and drew a direct personal parallel to Odin: "My father's relationship with me was cold. He expressed his disappointment because I was bad in school and all of that. He didn't mean any harm, but I felt I could never meet up to his expectations."

• 4. Casting the God and His Brother

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  The search for Thor itself was described by casting director Sarah Halley Finn as "daunting" because the film required a lead actor who could play both "an Asgardian god and a relatable Earth figure". Josh Hartnett, Kevin McKidd, and Triple H were among those considered. Charlie Hunnam, Alexander Skarsgård, and Joel Kinnaman were screen-tested. Channing Tatum auditioned. Alan Ritchson auditioned but lost the part after failing to take the process seriously.

  Chris Hemsworth, 25 years old at the time, was initially refused because he was reluctant to sign a six-picture deal, then given a second chance to read for the part. His brother Liam also auditioned and was passed over by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige. Once cast, Hemsworth gained 20 lb for the role through continuous eating before the film's costume fitting. He returned three weeks after the initial fitting to discover his costume no longer fit because of the muscle mass he had added. He then shifted from high-calorie eating to a kettlebell workout focused on maintaining rather than adding mass.

  Hemsworth adopted a British accent for the role, reasoning it suited the film's Shakespearean and mythological register. He noted that an Australian accent would have made the character resemble "Crocodile Dundee". For his fighting style, he and the production looked at Mike Tyson as a reference: low to the ground, powerful shoulder swings, described by Hemsworth as "brutal but graceful at the same time".

  Hiddleston had initially auditioned to play Thor, but Branagh concluded his talent would be better directed at Loki. In July 2009, Marvel announced that Natalie Portman would play Jane Foster. Portman stated she signed on before a script existed and that Branagh personally told her, "You can really help create this character". To prepare, she read biographies of female scientists including Rosalind Franklin, who she noted discovered the DNA double helix but did not receive credit for it. Portman articulated why the character's upgrade from nurse to astrophysicist mattered: "It doesn't give them a model of 'Oh, I just have to dress cute in movies'".

• 5. Filming and On-Set Rewrites

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  Principal photography began on the 11th of January 2010, at Raleigh Studios' Manhattan Beach, California facility, where Marvel had signed a long-term lease in October 2008 covering its next four productions: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Avengers. On the 15th of March 2010, production moved to Galisteo, New Mexico, where Cerro Pelon Ranch, described as an old-fashioned Western film town, was extensively modified for the shoot.

  A few days after filming began, Clark Gregg signed on to reprise his Agent Coulson role from the Iron Man films. Jeremy Renner's cameo as Clint Barton was written during production by Christopher Yost and Joss Whedon, and filmed in a parking lot behind a grocery store. Whedon also directed the film's post-credits scene featuring Nick Fury and the Tesseract. Marvel's in-house writers Nicole Perlman and Christopher Yost contributed uncredited on-set rewrites: Perlman worked on Jane Foster's role and some New Mexico material, while Yost focused on the Hawkeye cameo.

  Stuart Townsend had been cast as Fandral, but was replaced by Joshua Dallas only days before filming began, citing "creative differences"; Townsend himself had replaced Zachary Levi, who vacated the role due to a scheduling conflict. Adriana Barraza joined the cast in January 2010, but scenes involving her were removed during the editing process. Branagh sent her a personal letter of apology, and she responded: "It saddens me because the movie is great and because I was acting alongside some tremendous actors that I admire very much, but I understand the nature of films". Barraza appears in only one scene in the final theatrical cut.

  The Science and Entertainment Exchange connected the production with three physicists and a physics student to ground the film's science. The consultation led directly to changing Jane Foster's profession from nurse to particle physicist and to the use of the term "Einstein-Rosen bridge" to describe the Bifrost. Filming wrapped on the 6th of May 2010.

• 6. Sound, Score, and Visual Effects

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  Patrick Doyle, a frequent Branagh collaborator, composed the film's score. Doyle described Thor as "the most commercially high profile film I have done since Frankenstein". His central challenge was finding a tone that accommodated both Asgard and Earth, and he and Branagh held frequent conversations about musical direction: Branagh wanted a contemporary feel and a balance ensuring the grand images were not "hyperbolized", while Doyle implemented what he called a strong melodic sense. Doyle drew on his own Celtic background as a way into the Norse material, and an old Celtic folk song provided the basis for Thor's leitmotif. The soundtrack album was released by Buena Vista Records in April 2011.

  The Foo Fighters song "Walk" appears twice in the film: once during a scene where a powerless Thor shares boilermakers with Selvig in a roadhouse, and again over the closing credits. Marvel president Kevin Feige described the addition as last-minute, saying the crew felt the song had "these eerie appropriate lyrics and themes". Branagh noted the song's lyrics about learning to walk again were appropriate for "a movie about redemption, learning to be a hero".

  BUF Compagnie served as the lead visual effects vendor, with Digital Domain contributing additional work. BUF's team developing the effects for the race through space drew inspiration from Hubble photography and other deep space images. Branagh sent J. M. W. Turner paintings to Digital Domain when the team was creating the look of Jotunheim. The most challenging visual task, according to VFX supervisor Peter Butterworth of Fuel VFX, was interpreting what the Bifrost should look like: "You can't Google what these things look like," he said. For Odin's Chamber, Butterworth's team developed a dome and curtain of light rays by drawing reference from the corona of the sun. Although the film was shot in 2D, Feige stated the special effects were "conceived and executed from the beginning in 3D".

• 7. Release, Reception, and Sequels

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  Thor opened in 3,955 theaters in the United States on the 6th of May 2011, including 214 IMAX 3D venues and 2,737 3D screens, which the source describes as a record amount. The film earned $25.5 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada, including $3.3 million from Thursday previews, for an opening weekend gross of $65.7 million. Of that opening-weekend total, $6.2 million came from IMAX 3D and 60% from 3D screenings overall.

  Critically the response was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes' consensus described the film as "a dazzling blockbuster that tempers its sweeping scope with wit, humor, and human drama". Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times praised Chris Hemsworth's performance as the most entertaining superhero debut since the original Spider-Man. Roger Ebert called the film "a failure as a movie, but a success as marketing". A. O. Scott described it as "an example of the programmed triumph of commercial calculation over imagination".

  On home video, Thor took the number one spot on the Blu-ray and DVD sales chart in its first week of release and topped the rental chart for that week as well. The home release included at least 20 minutes of deleted scenes featuring additional material with Odin, Frigga, and scenes between Thor and Loki.

  Three sequels followed. Thor: The Dark World was directed by Alan Taylor and released on the 8th of November 2013. Thor: Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi, arrived on the 3rd of November 2017, and brought in Mark Ruffalo and Benedict Cumberbatch alongside returning cast. Thor: Love and Thunder, released on the 8th of July 2022, reunited Hemsworth with Natalie Portman, whose character takes on the mantle of Thor as in the comics, alongside Christian Bale as the villain Gorr the God Butcher.