The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a transition phase, and we watched it play out, with mixed results, during Phase Four. Many of the actors who have been around since Phase One have moved on, but still Chris Hemsworth remains and was seen most recently in Thor: Love & Thunder The fourth movie in that character’s franchise is, for now, the last one, but there’s always potential for at least one more. However, if that’s going to happen, Hemsworth needs to see some changes.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hemsworth talked about what it would take for him to return for Thor 5, assuming such a sequel were ever greenlit…
“You look at ‘Thor’ one and two. They were quite similar, ‘Ragnarok’ and ‘Love & Thunder’ similar; it’s just reinventing it. I’ve had such a unique opportunity with ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’ to do very drastic things with the character. I enjoy that, keeping people on their toes, but it keeps me on my toes; it keeps me invested. I’ve said this before, but when it becomes too familiar, I think there is a risk of getting lazy. So, I don’t know. I don’t even know if I’m invited back. If I was, it would have to be a drastically different version, in tone, everything. Just for my own sanity.”
Hemsworth had made eight major appearances as the god of thunder, and you can hardly blame him for wanting to shake things up and do something different. However, what you won’t see him do is return to the Star Trek franchise. Hemsworth initially played George Kirk, father of Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk in the first of JJ Abrams’ movies, and had been rumored to come back for an earlier version of Star Trek 4. Hemsworth says that won’t be happening now, in part because he’s probably too old…
“It just wasn’t… a few reasons really, but it just didn’t really, umm, it wasn’t what I was thinking it could’ve been, and I thought, ok, cool, let’s figure that out and keep going, but I think everyone got busy and so on. But it would be a bit weird now to flashback to your father, and why’s he so much older?”
As for when we’ll see Hemsworth as Thor next? Who knows? Maybe he shows up in Loki season two?
