Chris Hemsworth Shares “Legacy of Thor” Video and Worries Fans

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Did Chris Hemsworth just say goodbye to the character that made him famous? Probably not, but a lot of people are worried that he’s done playing the Mighty Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (That’s right; Lady Thor doesn’t get to steal his original title, no matter how much she breaks the fourth wall while trying to shame Christian Bale.) These concerns stem from a video Hemsworth posted on his YouTube channel called “Thank You! The Legacy of Thor,” which shows clips of his eight appearances as the God of Thunder across the MCU and bits of interviews with Hemsworth, Kevin Feige, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Taika Waititi. In the video, Hemsworth talks about how much playing Thor has meant to him and how grateful he is to his fans. You can watch the video below:

You can understand why people think Chris Hemsworth is saying goodbye to Thor. But read the description below the video; after thanking his fans, he ends with “Next up, Doomsday!” He’s getting ready for his next adventure as Thor, his inclusion in which was announced last month via chair. And there’s another big clue: did you notice that in the video, Hemsworth says he’s been playing Thor for ten years, but in the description, he says it’s been fifteen years? Did you further notice that the video is heavily skewed towards Thor: Love and Thunder, his last foray into Marvel’s godly realms, with interview snippets from people involved in that film but not, say, Tom Hiddleston or Anthony Hopkins? That’s because this video was made in 2022 and was part of the online marketing for Love and Thunder, which I suspected and confirmed; as proof, here’s the original video from the Marvel Entertainment YouTube channel, the date of which you can verify:

Before I get into the whys of this video, I need to vent. When Kevin Feige talks about how they found Chris Hemsworth, he leaves out an important detail: he didn’t find Chris Hemsworth. Joss Whedon found Chris Hemsworth – or, more accurately, he found him in the trash after Marvel had cast him out. Feige and Thor director Kenneth Branagh were having trouble casting the role, and they turned down Hemsworth when he auditioned. Whedon had just worked with Hemsworth on The Cabin in the Woods, which he wrote with director Drew Goddard. (The Cabin in the Woods sat on the shelf for several years after it was filmed and was finally released in 2012, after The Avengers; that’s why Hemsworth looks so much younger in it. Also, if you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend it, even if you don’t like horror movies.) Whedon was also part of the creative team that shaped the MCU in those early years, along with Jon Favreau and some others, and he called Branagh and strongly suggested he give Hemsworth another chance. Hemsworth auditioned again and got the part. This bothers me not just because I’m a massive Joss Whedon fan (and don’t care that he yells a lot and made Ray Fisher cry) but because it’s yet another instance of Kevin Feige taking credit for things other people did to shape the MCU, just like when he’s patted on the back for casting Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark when it was Jon Favreau who did it and, when met with resistance, fought for it. I’ve gone from thinking this guy isn’t as brilliant as he was made out to be to thinking he’s a dick.

With that out of the way, I think there are a few possible reasons why Chris Hemsworth shared this video now. One is that he’s about to start shooting Avengers: Doomsday, and he’s marking the event with a look back at his Thor journey (into mystery). Another is that he really is grateful for his fans and how they’ve embraced him as the character; Hemsworth strikes me as a genuinely good guy, and I don’t believe he’s ever attacked the audience the way almost everyone else in Hollywood does. He even talked about how he was embarrassed of Thor: Love and Thunder, joking that his son’s friends made fun of it, and he had nothing to counter them with. Compare this to the general Disney tactic of calling the audience racists when they don’t like the newest trash heap one of their studios dumps on them. Speaking of which, another possibility is that Marvel realizes it’s in a death spiral – as evinced by their postponing of Doomsday and its follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars – and desperately wants to court back fans who’ve had enough of them, so they asked one of their most likable stars to hype up his return. I mean, despite their insistence that Thunderbolts* is their biggest hit of all time forever infinity, they didn’t ask Florence Pugh to hype people up over seeing Yelena Belova again. To that end, I don’t think the way Tom Cruise has been carrying himself is lost on anyone; he spent the entire Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning marketing campaign thanking fans and keeping the focus on the movie rather than politics, and while it’ll probably still lose money because of its insane budget (and the fact that it kinda sucks), The Final Reckoning had a big opening. Perhaps, maybe… just maybe… if the stars are aligned and the moon is in Jupiter… Marvel took notes. My bet is that Hemsworth just wanted to thank his fans, and Marvel learned nothing – leopards and spots and whatnot – but whatever the case, it’s nice, and there’s no need for people to worry. Yet.

Let us know what you think about Chris Hemsworth sharing a Thor video in the comments!

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