The Hilarious Reason Thor Isn't In Civil War, According To Robert Downey Jr.

In Captain America: Civil War, Marvel’s top heroes are at odds. Cap (Chris Evans) is duking it out with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) Vision (Paul Bettany) is locking horns with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). But Thor seemingly is out of the fray, on a quest through the galaxies to figure out more about Thanos’ Infinity Stones. But Downey has a different, much funnier reason why the God of Thunder wasn’t invited to play in the Civil War sandbox.

Now, that’s just mean. Robert Downey Jr. is digging all the way back to Joss Whedon’s first Avengers movie to poke fun at Chris Hemsworth and his hammer-wielding skills. Or lack thereof. The silly GIF shows how light the actual Mjolnir is. Hemsworth, who’s undoubtedly strong, bounces the weapon around like it’s made of some form of foam and rubber. At least this proves it isn’t CGI! By this point, Hemsworth had only filmed on Thor movie, and he spent a good deal of that movie in exile… meaning, not a lot of Hammer Time. Cut him a break. He’s a LOT better with the hammer now.

I had to watch the GIF a few times before I realized how awesomely silly Chris Evans looks fighting the air. Swing that shield and punch that nothing, Cap!

Naturally, there’s a real reason why Chris Hemsworth is absent from Captain America: Civil War, and it has nothing to do with his bobbling hammer tricks. At the end of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor left on a mission to research the Infinity Stones, which have been causing all sorts of problems for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (even though one of them helped give birth to Vision). His journey will lead into Thor: Ragnarok, a Marvel sequel that’s expected to begin filming this summer so it can reach theaters in time for a November 3, 2017 release. That’s when we next expect to see The God of Thunder, unless he’s part of a Civil War post-credits sequence.

Much like Hulk, adding Thor to Civil War would lead to an imbalanced team. That might be part of the reason why Marvel sidelined the Asgardian for the third Captain America movie. Also, putting a hero on the shelf for a few movies creates anticipation. We’ll miss Thor in Civil War, but it has us anticipating Ragnarok all the more because of it.

Captain America: Civil War opens in theaters in the States on May 6. Do you have your tickets yet?

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.