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Before Thor was reinvented in Ragnarok, Chris Hemsworth had a bone to pick with his MCU character. The actor didn't feel that Thor was a significant enough part of the Avengers. Robert Downey Jr. didn't feel the same, though.
Speaking to Vanity Fair for their latest cover issue, Hemsworth revealed he felt like his MCU character was a “security guard” for the Avengers.
“Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team,” he said. “I would read everyone else’s lines, and go, Oh, they got way cooler stuff. They’re having more fun. What’s my character doing? It was always about, ‘You’ve got the wig on. You’ve got the muscles. You’ve got the costume. Where’s the lighting?’ Yeah, I’m part of this big thing, but I’m probably pretty replaceable.”
However, Avengers co-star and recent Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. dismissed these critiques. “First off, Thor as a character was super tricky to adapt—lots of implied limitations—but he and Ken Branagh figured out how to transcend, make him somehow relatable but godlike,” he explained. “Hemsworth is, in my opinion, the most complex psyche out of all us Avengers. He’s got wit and gravitas, but also such restraint, fire, and gentleness.”
Chris Hemsworth's MCU Thor tenure
Chris Hemsworth was first introduced in the 2011 Kenneth Branagh-directed Thor. He would go on to lead three more solo films, most recently Love and Thunder. Additionally, Hemsworth appeared in all four of the Avengers MCU films.
The Thor films have been hits for the MCU. Ragnarok made $853 million worldwide at the box office. Love and Thunder didn't quite top that in 2022 but still made $760 million worldwide.
Before his MCU run, Hemsworth gained notoriety for his role in Home and Away as Kim Hyde. He also appeared on Dancing With the Stars in 2006 as a contestant.
He made his big screen debut appearing in J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot film in 2009. Hemsworth played George Kirk and appeared in the sequel, Into Darkness. From there, he would star in Cabin in the Woods, Rush, Blackhat, Vacation, and In the Heart of the Sea with future MCU alum Tom Holland.
As his MCU career grew, Hemsworth has landed more high-profile projects. He has starred in 12 Strong, Bad Times at the El Royale, Men in Black: International, and Spiderhead. Hemsworth has reunited with Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo (the Russo Brothers) for the Extraction series on Netflix.
Coming up, Hemsworth will star in Furiosa with Anya Taylor-Joy. The upcoming film is a prequel spin-off of Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road. He will also star in the animated Transformers One. It will mark the first animated feature film being released theatrically since 1986's The Transformers: The Movie.
