Thor star Chris Hemsworth has responded to MCU critics.
During an interview with The Times, Hemsworth revealed that critics of the MCU “bothers” him. Especially when they were “heroes” of his. Perhaps he's referring to Martin Scorsese and other iconic filmmakers.
“It felt harsh, and it bothers me, especially from heroes,” Hemsworth told the outlet. “It was an eye-roll for me, people bashing the superhero space. Those guys had films that didn't work too — we all have. When they talked about what was wrong with superheroes, I thought, cool, tell that to the billions who watch them. Were they all wrong?”
He also thinks that the films “deserve a little more appreciation” given their box office relevance. The superhero genre may not be every critic's favorite, but at its peak, the MCU did carry the box office on its shoulders.
Fellow MCU stars calling out the franchise
Later in the interview, Hemsworth also seemingly called out fellow MCU alums-turned-critics who call out the franchise after their tenures such as Robert Downey Jr. At the BAFTAs, Downey said that Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan “suggested I attempt an understated approach as a last-ditch effort to perhaps resurrect my dwindling credibility.”
That “dwindling credibility” came after starring in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes series and playing “a guy named Tony in the MCU,” as Downey put it.
This didn't sit well with Hemsworth. “It used to bother me that actors would later talk about the show with guilt or shame,” he said. “Humility goes a long way. One of the older actors on Home and Away said, ‘We don't get paid to make the good lines sound good, but to make the bad ones work.' That stuck with me.”
However, Hemsworth did concede that while playing Thor didn't bore him, it became “familiar.”
“I'd done film upon film that fell into a similar space and I wasn't stretching myself,” Hemsworth explained. “If you play a character again and again you owe it to the audience to bring something new and make it fresh for yourself too. We did so with Thor: Ragnarok, but for Love and Thunder[,] it got a bit jokey. Too improv.”
At least George Miller, who directed Hemsworth in Furiosa, isn't opposed to the MCU. He recently said he'd be willing to direct Hemsworth in Thor 5.
Chris Hemsworth's Thor run and career
Chris Hemsworth began his career by starring in several seasons of Home and Away. His big screen debut came in J. J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot. Hemsworth starred alongside Chris Pine and future MCU alum Zoe Saldaña. He would return for a sequel in the sequel, Into Darkness.
From there, Hemsworth starred in A Perfect Getaway and Ca$h before landing his MCU role in Thor. He played the title character in four solo films and all four Avengers films. The last two Thor films, Ragnarok and Love and Thunder, were commercial successes, grossing $865 million and $760 million, respectively.
His other notable non-MCU credits include Blackhat, In the Heart of the Sea, 12 Strong, Bad Times at the El Royale, and the Extraction series for Netflix.
Coming up, Hemsworth will star in George Miller's Furiosa. The film is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road and he stars alongside Anya Taylor-Joy. Hemsworth will also star in Transformers One, an upcoming animated film, voicing Optimus Prime.
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