When Avengers: Endgame was released earlier this year, we had to bid farewell to three of the six founding members of the Avengers with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) dying and Captain America (Chris Evans) growing old – we’re just thankful Thor (Chris Hemsworth) survived.
Now, Endgame co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have revealed they easily could have made the film a “bloodbath” for the first six Avengers if they’d wanted to, but they chose to bring a teeny bit of hope to the movie by leaving Thor, the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) alive.
Sure, we know Thor and Hawkeye have future projects with Thor: Love and Thunder and the Disney+ series Hawkeye, but they had an important reason for not killing off Hemsworth’s character.
Markus told Vanity Fair, “It’s not necessarily that we knew they’d get more stories, it’s just that… Thor has sacrificed and sacrificed and lost and lost. It’s not a good ending to kill him. To have him finally, reasonably content with himself — and with his current weight.”
Thor had the most intense five years since Thanos’ snap as he was the closest to killing Thanos and when they lost he took it very much to heart, feeling like he’d failed the world. He wallowed, turning to food and alcohol to keep his spirits high.
Markus added, “By the way… there were some people who were like, ‘No, he has to magically lose weight.’ [Laughs.] That was one of those sobering moments on set where some people were afraid. He’s going to put on the fat suit, and he comes out and basically looks like everybody on the crew. That’s not a fat suit! That’s a normal-person suit! But Thor was resolved. There’s a joy in letting him go off aimlessly into the ends of the universe.”
Apparently, at one point there was a vision that perhaps when Captain America says “Avengers, assemble” Thor would magically go back to his buff self. However, they ended up going for the realistic option where he remained the same size and was still able to kick ass despite being overweight.
CinemaBlend reports that Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi has remained tightlipped on how much time will have passed since the events of Endgame and whether or not Thor will have gone back to his ripped physique.
One thing we do know is that with Waititi involved, it’s bound to be a great film!