We are less than two months away from the release of the epic Marvel sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the movie is making its presence known. Last summer a collection of journalists were fortunate enough to visit the set of Avengers: Age of Ultron, while they were shooting. Chris Hemsworth sat down and talked about the Marvel cinematic universe in a interview that was only recently published due to an embargo.
Hemsworth has kept busy filming many projects in between the first and second Avengers movie. He has had critical success in Ron Howard’s Rush and a box-office bomb to add to his resume in Blackhat. Clearly he understands the necessity of a great story. He was asked what he thought of the script for Age of Ultron when he received it.
It was awesome. I mean, coming off Thor 2 and Avengers, you know, I couldn’t wait to read this. I just loved how it upped it in a way that wasn’t just bigger and flashier. I mean, everything had been amplified, but in an intelligent way. All the stories are relevant to what’s going on in the world, as far as the exponential growth of technology and artificial intelligence and the questions of good versus bad and the AI world. They’re obviously heavily influenced by that tone and that debate. He’s managed to bring all of the Avengers back in and give them a relevant reason to be there and justified sort of conflict. I mean, it’s a tricky balance. I’m glad I’m not the one writing the thing and having to pull that off.
In the first Avengers, there was an interplantary threat that was woven into Thor’s relationship with his brother Loki. In some ways The Avengers could have been looked at as a sequel to Thor’s story specifically. Now the main antagonist of the Age of Ultron’s plot is Ultron, who is closely tied to Tony Stark. Hemsworth was asked how his character ties into the story this time around.
We pick up with Thor having stayed on Earth from Thor 2, so he’s here, he’s part of the team. This is his home for the moment. The initial kind of threat, the attack from Ultron, is personal because it’s directed at all the Avengers. Thor then begins to see a bigger picture here about what this threat could be potentially, and begins to kind of tie in all of our films. It’s hard to say too much without talking about what I can’t talk about but as I said, it’s a personal loss from the get-go because it’s at him, but I guess he sees a bigger picture.
It is unclear what the “bigger threat” is, but it is known that Ultron will be partially built using Chituari technology from the first movie. It could be possible that it leads him to a clue that could be from another world. At this point Thor would be the most knowledgeable Avenger when it comes to the cosmos and the bigger universal mysteries. So it will be fascinating to see where his adventures lead him in the movie.
This will be Thor’s fourth appearance on-screen. During this time he has gone through a gauntlet of experiences and change. Hemsworth explained the continued growth of his character.
He’s loosened up a bit. I think we lost some of the humor and the naïveté, that sort of fish out of water quality of Thor from the first film into the second one. There were things I loved about what we did in the second one too, tonally, but that sense of fun… I would have liked it to be there a bit more, and Joss I think felt the same way. So there’s more humor in Thor. Or at least, because he’s been on Earth, he’s a little more accessible now. He’s off Asgard so he doesn’t have to be as regal and kingly as he is in that world, which is nice. I enjoy that more. It’s sort of a box, which is tough to step out of on Asgard. You know, that stuff just looks out of place whereas here, he can have a gag with the guys and he can throw away lines and be a party scene with them in civilian clothes, which is nice.
At the end of Iron Man 3, Tony Stark had removed the shrapnel and arc reactor from his chest and destroyed all of his Iron Man suits. Captain America: The Winter Soldier ended with Steve Rogers left in the aftermath of a dismantled S.H.I.E.L.D. and finding out his friend had been brainwashed and tortured. While Thor had left Asgard unknowingly in the hands of his evil brother Loki at the end of The Dark World. Hemsworth explains if those loose threads are picked up in the Age of Ultron.
It is referenced in a way to tie the films up that there certainly is a new threat into this. There’s a new conflict. There’s a new set of circumstances. I think we saved the complete tie-ups for our individual films. They don’t tend to cover too much of the previous and the next one. Hopefully, they all stand alone as their own story.
No one has more of an up and close perspective on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes than Hemsworth. He was asked who his favorite Avenger is, aside from Thor.
I mean I love the fun Tony gets to have with that character and the lack of boundaries I think he’s getting. He has room to move so much and do so many things yet always bring it back and be personal and grounded at times no matter how sort of zany it can get. I just love watching Robert work in this setting, he’s pretty special.
It is encouraging to hear that after playing the character for over eight years, that Downey Jr. isn’t phoning in his performances and is still impressing his coworkers. Tony Stark’s character may change the most out of any of the main cast over the next couple of movies, so the fact that Downey Jr. is still invested in the role is encouraging.
In The Avengers, much of the memorable action and situational comedy came from the conflicts between the Hulk and Thor. Hemsworth was asked if we can expect to see them rumble one more time.
We’re not as conflicted as we were before, I think. He tags off with someone else though. I think we sort of changed up there, and he has a pretty solid battle with… am I allowed to say? Yeah, with Iron Man in this one, which is cool. It’s a lengthy fight scene of destruction.
Despite how entertaining their fight was last time, surely most people will take the Iron Man versus Hulk fight as a constellation prize. Thor has been a tricky inclusion into the Avengers simply because he is both alien and a god and at times can seem invincible. Hemsworth was asked if Whedon has come up with a creative story for Thor to carry out within the Age of Ultron narrative.
It seems like a pretty simple demand but yeah, it would be easy to fall into, “Oh, they’re all just there because we’re all contracted and look cool if we’re standing in the same room.” (laughs) I mean it was there from the beginning, too, but I just sort of kept saying to Joss, “Okay, what do I bring to the table, besides kind of Thor being one of his foot soldiers and the muscle in a bunch of fight scenes. What is his knowledge he can bring to it?” And trying to incorporate that he’s from another world because you forget that, too. All of a sudden you’re standing there in these conversations and you go, “Well hang on, he’s from another planet, you know? With his thousands of years of existence, what information can that bring?” And so he calls upon some of that Asgardian knowledge and is able to go into, say, another realm to pull out something that’s hugely useful. Some information that certainly benefits where they’re at at that point.
Many have wondered what the image from the trailer was of Thor in a hot spring. Many have speculated that it is an illusion conjured by the Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen.
Hemsworth goes on to confirm that Scarlet Witch will be enchanting various members of the Avengers. He is asked to elaborate on her hypnotic effect on the super team.
I think it certainly creates a conflict. It’s more kind of within their individual selves rather than the team so much. I think they’ll begin to have their fears held up in front of them. For Thor, I think it’s a corruption of power. With all of them having this much power and trying to have the understanding that we’re in this sort of endless battle here and when this is going to end and how does it end? That scene is actually being rewritten at the moment, if you want to talk to Joss about it, so it’s hard to even say what it will be in Thor’s dream sequence but it kicks in motion his movement. That’s where he really starts to kind of move through the story. Once that dream occurs he goes, “Oh, I can see what’s coming and my fear could be true” so yeah, it’s a ticking clock.
The next solo Thor film is titled Thor: Ragnarok, which essentially means “the end of all things.” That certaintly seems to indicate that there could be some finality to his character coming soon. Hemsworth was asked if he knows how Thor’s story will ultimately end.
No, I mean I have asked the question but the truth is no one has the answer yet. We don’t know how it’s going to end and the biggest concern is this one here, more so than two or three films in time. I’m sure they are coming up with ideas and attempting to kind of have some arrangement that five or six years down the track they go, “Okay, this is where we’re heading” but they don’t tell us until the day before usually.
In the Avengers, Thor is the veteran warrior with the most combat experience. He has battled aliens and monsters that the rest of the team can’t even fathom. However Hemsworth explains that he and the Avengers certainly don’t have their usual swagger when faced with this particular threat.
I think [Thor] openly admits, “I don’t think we’re going to win this one.” The threat is so great that I think all of them are sort of scratching their heads going, “Is this it?” rather than, “Okay, we have to kill this many things.” It’s just an onslaught and it doesn’t stop. It’s sort of an open sort of floodgate and what it could also set in motion is an even bigger threat. I think that’s what’s Thor’s kind of stuck on or where his is attention certainly is, an even bigger picture of Thor being from Asgard. He can just say, “Hang on, there’s a whole universe here which is signaling something else.”
With the larger threat comes the need to continue to sharpen his fighting skills. With each movie Marvel has been able to refine Thor and make his fighting style increasingly dynamic. Hemsworth explains how the action with Thor is being handled in Age of Ultron.
Yeah, in this instance you see it’s hand-to-hand combat because if someone of his equal strength or moreso than him, so he can afford to do that. Whereas with the people who were far less capable than him and not as strong, I said, “You know, let’s make sure he’s picking up cars and throwing them and ripping things in half and spending a bit more time up in the air and using the elements as opposed to being stuck kind of in a hand-to-hand sort of fist fight with the bad guys.” So yeah, I think it keeps getting kind of amped up and then the stunts become more elaborate. Yeah, we see him fly a bit more.
From Hemsworth’s quotes it seems that Whedon has put a lot of thought into how Thor fits into the Age of Ultron and he is clearly excited about where the character is going.
Avengers: Age of Ultron opens on May 1st, 2015.
Do you like what Hemsworth had to say? What interplanetary connection do you think Thor finds in Age of Ultron that connects to the other films? Let us know on , , !
Source: Slashfilm