Amazing as it is to see all of the core members of The Avengers unifying on the big screen, it’s certainly less narratively fulfilling if there isn’t any real reason for all of the heroes to be together. Easy as the excuse "They’re all friends" is, the truth is that the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron will benefit from actually providing time to give reason for each character’s individual presence. Fortunately, this appears to be very much in the cards for the blockbuster – at least for Thor, who will be bringing a very interesting element to the table in the fight against the movie’s titular villain: his Asgardian knowledge, and ability to travel between realms.
Chris Hemsworth delved into this very topic while on the Avengers 2 set, which I was given the wonderful opportunity to visit alongside a small group of other film journalists last summer. The Australian actor sat down for an interview with us in Tony Stark’s Avengers Tower lab – dressed in full Thor, armor, naturally – and when asked about how he got his two cents in on the writing process, Hemsworth noted that what was most important to him was giving the God of Thunder a reason to be around in the story. As it turns out, a key part is the hero’s extraterrestrial background, which plays an important part in the fight versus Ultron. He explained,
I just sort of kept saying to Joss, ‘Okay, what do I bring to the table besides Thor being one of [the Avengers’] foot soldiers and the muscle in a bunch of fight scenes?’ Like, ‘What is his knowledge he can bring to it?’… All of a sudden, you're standing there in these conversations and you go, ‘Well hang on. He’s from another planet you know! What's his thousands of years of existence? What information can I bring?’ And so he calls upon some of his Asgardian knowledge in this 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 that point.
Given that we were very much in a spoiler-free zone, Hemsworth couldn’t really expand on any details of what that means, but it certainly opens up a lot of questions. It was confirmed earlier this week that Idris Elba will also have a role in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which means that Thor could have access to the Bifrost Bridge and the ability to travel to any of the nine realms. But which realm could he travel to and find something useful in the fight against Ultron? That’s something we can look forward to seeing unfold on the big screen.
Thor will evidently be zipping all around the universe when The Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives in theaters on May 1st, but be sure to stay tuned in the coming days, weeks, and months for more of our coverage from the set!
