Chris Hemsworth blames himself for ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ failure as he “became a parody of myself”

One of the most consistent criticisms about the superhero genre of films, especially those coming from Marvel Studios, is that the more recent productions have heavily shifted gears towards comedy and irreverence. This tone has become a burden for the industry, as well as sparked negativity among fans, and it seems like at least one of the actors involved in the biggest shift agrees.

After the massive change to his character in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, Chris Hemsworth returned to work with director Taika Waititi for ' Thor: Love & Thunder’, which ended up going even further into comedy and wackyness for a character that was supposed to be a stoic and powerful god. According to Hemsworth himself, the failure of the movie was not only on the box office, but in the way the character ended up being represented on screen. “I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself,” said Hemsworth in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I didn’t stick the landing.”

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Hemsworth revealed that after playing the character for a large part of his career, by the time of his fourth solo film he’d grown frustrated about the way Thor was inconsequential to the major universe, and how he’d become, at least in his eyes, sort of a joke character in a series of movies that took other characters very seriously.

“Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team,” he admitted. “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.”

The future of the God of Thunder in the MCU

Ever since his time as Thor, Hemsworth began to be typecasted into “muscle guy” roles, often making use of his wit and humor to carry himself through roles that he now admits were taking their toll on his career and personal life. Ever since he’s been seeking to expand out of the action genre, and is now working with director Darren Aronofsky on a couple of projects to do exactly that.

However, he’s not done playing the kind of role that made him famous. He’s set to return to the big screen this very year with ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’, in which he’ll play the part of the movie’s big villain in what he claims is his favorite role ever since ‘Rush’, the 2013 Ron Howard movie about race car drivers. And now, he seems ready to return to the MCU as Thor, but only if there is a demand for it and the filmmakers have a good idea for the character.

“I don’t want to continue to do it until people are so exhausted that they roll their eyes when they see me come on the screen as that character,” he revealed. “If an audience wants to see it, and if there’s something that we believe is exciting and fun, then great. I’ve loved being able to reinvent that character a few times. I don’t have the answer yet, but I would love to try and [figure out] how we can do that again and keep it a little unpredictable.”