Marvels Thor: Love and Thunder was a box office hit with $760 million worldwide, but a lot of Marvel fans were turned off by writer-director Taika Waititis silly humor and the films unappealing visual effects. Thor actor himself, Chris Hemsworth, is aware of the negativity around his fourth Thor movie, and he even admitted in a new GQ magazine profile that Love and Thunder was too silly for its own good.
I think we just had too much fun. It just became too silly, Hemsworth said about the movie. Its always hard being in the center of it and having any real perspectiveI love the process, its always a ride. But you just dont know how people are going to respond.
Hemsworth said his biggest critics were his sons friends. Its a bunch of eight-year-olds critiquing my film. We thought this one had too much humor, the action was cool but the VFX werent as good, he said. I cringe and laugh equally at it.
Hemsworth has starred in a total of eight Marvel movies, and just because Thor: Love and Thunder was too silly doesnt mean hes against doing more. The actor currently is not contracted for any more Marvel movies. He really wants to do some other stuff for a while, but hell return if its a creatively rich opportunity.
I love the experience, Hemsworth said. I love the fact that Ive been able to do something fairly different throughout the process. Thor 1 and 2 were their own thing, Thor 3 and 4 were a very different feeland then even Avengers, the Lebowski Thor, the Infinity War Thor, due to different directors and I think mostly my own need to do something different.
Marvel has had a rocky track record as of late. While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a box office hit and earned Angela Bassett an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earned some of the MCUs worst reviews and cratered at the box office with $476 million. That number is all the more troublesome considering Quantumania was the kick off for the MCUs next phase and marked the introduction of its Thanos-size new villain, Kang the Conqueror.
Hemsworth told GQ that Wakanda Forever was really cool. He didnt see Quantumania, but he saw enough of the marketing to wonder why Marvel turned the relatively small Ant-Man franchise into a huge space epic.
Thats the trick: you have to separate all those stories, Hemsworth said The moment its like: Your world is in danger, the entire universe! Its like, Yeah, so [it] was the last 24 films. It has to become a bit more personal and grounded.
Hemsworth also addressed criticisms of Marvel made by top filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Scorsese has hit out against Marvel for negatively impacting exhibition, while Tarantino said last November that Marvel is incapable of generating movie stars.
Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood isyou have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters, Tarantino said on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast. But theyre not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, Im not the first person to say that. I think thats been said a zillion timesbut its like, you know, its these franchise characters that become a star.
Thats super depressing when I hear that, Hemsworth said about Tarantino and Scorsese. There goes two of my heroes I wont work with. I guess theyre not a fan of me.
Seeing the glass half-full, Hemsworth added, Im thankful that I have been a part of something that kept people in cinemas. Now, whether or not those films were to the detriment of other films, I dont know. I dont love when we start scrutinizing each other when theres so much fragility in the business and in this space of the arts as it isI say that less to the directors who made those comments, who are all, by the way, still my heroes, and in a heartbeat I would leap to work with any of them. But I say it more to the broader opinion around that topic. I dont think any of us have the answer, but were trying.
Hemsworth next appears in Extraction 2, streaming June 16 on Netflix.