There is only one of the six initial Avengers who remains standing in anything close to his original form. That is, still swinging a weapon, still leading a team, and still carrying the entire weight of a universe on his shoulders well over a decade after he first crashed into that New Mexico desert. Chris Hemsworth‘s Thor has quietly become the closest and most consistent thing that resembles an MCU figurehead leftover from the beginning. Even Mark Ruffalo‘s Hulk, has suffered major setbacks in ever getting another stand alone film post Edward Norton‘s performance in The Incredible Hulk, and the rights battle between Disney and Universal. Regardless, Thor’s status has only deepened amongst recent appearances across the What If? Universe, his place in Endgame’s iconic three-headed trio, and now his central role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. The marketing for that itself, seems intent on mirroring some of the franchise’s most legendary moments through a new lens entirely.
The line from the trailer alone, “I swear you will beg for Hell long before I grant it,” feels like a direct echo of Thanos’s (Josh Brolin) own menace except this time it belongs to Thor. He is no longer the wide-eyed prince, but something closer to that myth Marvel so carefully attempted to build upon in its original 2011 debut film of the God of Thunder. But, what makes Thor’s arc worth this kind of retrospective is far beyond just simple longevity. This is more about the sheer range of what Hemsworth has been able to do with the character, veering from full comedic absurdity to some of the most psychologically devastating moments in the MCU. Few heroes on the screen have been allowed to age, scar and visibly carry trauma the way Hemsworth’s Thor has, watching his body and mental state shift dramatically from Ragnarok’s battle hardened king to Endgame’s shattered shell of a man. The willingness to let the character evolve and adapt in such unexpected ways is exactly what makes his journey worth tracing film by film.
Now, as he reportedly leads a scrappy, almost G league version of the Avengers into the franchise’s next great threat, Thor’s psychological journey feels more relevant than ever. This is a hero defined as much by loss as by lightning. He has buried his father, brother, home and half his people, all while still choosing to lead anyway. That combination, comedic warmth built on top of legendary comic book folklore, makes him one of the most compelling characters the MCU has ever built, and reason enough to look back at how he got here.
5
‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron is easy to overlook in a conversation about Thor’s evolution. But, it marks that exact moment his focus shifts from Earthly to fully cosmic universe-level stakes. After Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) powers trigger an early vision, Thor later seeks clarity at the Water of Sight. But what he finds, destabilizes him. He watches Asgard fall into apocalyptic ruin, his best friend Heimdall (Idris Elba) screams from going blind, as he tells Thor that he is leading them all to hell. He sees the Infinity Stones aligning into a force capable of annihilation. That vision, cut dramatically before the movie hit theaters, worked at something way beyond the traditional physical strength and visible suffering so predominantly associated with the character. It attacks at his true self-worth, forces Thor to look inward and plants the fear that his power will ultimately destroy his people rather than protect them. It is a fear that directly foreshadows the trauma of Ragnarok still to come.
That dread is exactly what isolates him from the rest of the team in a way that none of the other original Avengers had ever experienced. It forces him into this side quest with Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgaard) that leads to one of the stranger detours of the entire franchise when he does enter that eerie and murky watering hole. But it’s only Thor who fully understands the breadth of what is coming. That the battles occurring on Earth were merely one small piece of a much larger game being orchestrated by an enemy the team has not even identified yet. His arc resolves back at the Avengers Tower. Instead of arguing with everyone else over whether to destroy the synthetic body of Ultron, he trusts his visions from the Water of Sight and recognizes the mind stone. Thor uses his lightning powers to bring a newborn Vision to life and trust it with the fate of the stone.
4
‘Thor’ (2011)
The film that started it all. Thor establishes the long complicated relationship between Thor and his adopted brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the God of Mischief, that would go onto define the next decade of the character’s arc. Thor begins as an arrogant, hot-headed prince who values brute force over wisdom, actively seeking war with the Frost Giants against his Father Odin’s (Anthony Hopkins) wishes. Due to his lackluster respect for authority, his father strips him of his hammer — Mjolinir —, banishing him to New Mexico and removing him of his powers. Thor is forced to confront mortal vulnerability and his burgeoning relationship with Earthly being Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), the humility and care that ordinary people are looking for rather than traditional mythical glory. That transition is put immediately to the test when Loki summons the Destroyer to eliminate his banished brother. But it’s Thor’s willingness, without powers, to sacrifice himself for others that proves his worthiness and rightfully reunites him with his godly hammer.
This movie lays the groundwork for the arc that Thor follows throughout the course of the MCU timeline. The character work isn’t incidental, it’s a blueprint for his journey, from entitled prince to humbled hero. It establishes the emotional and familial through line that every subsequent film would build on. The fractured trust between Thor and Loki becomes one of the most consistently compelling tensions across the entire franchise. Chris Hemsworth plays the arrogance and the redemption with equal conviction. That range is exactly what made him a viable lead worth building a decade of storytelling around.
3
‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
Avengers: Endgame gives Thor his most controversial arc in the franchise. It’s also one of the most emotionally honest, as his spiral begins the moment he decapitates a defenseless Thanos in the films opening minutes, delivering the line, “I aimed for the head.” Only to end up realizing, that slashing Thanos had nothing to do with the snap itself. That failure sends him into a deep depression. During the five year jump, Thor isolates himself in New Asgard with space friends Korg and Miek, gains significant weight and fills his days drinking booze and playing video games. After watching the loss of the majority of his people, he is beaten down by the weight of the crushing guilt of a failure he cannot fix. This was a polarizing choice for all involved. Hemsworth was adamant to keep Thor overweight the entire film, an unmotivated and unwashed version in place of the usual stoic off-screen suffering from a God. But, it gave Hemsworth some of the most vulnerable material he has ever had to play with in the role.
His path back starts with an unexpected reunion. Traveling back in time to 2013 Asgard, Thor runs into his deceased mother, Frigga, who sees straight through his bravado. She gently reminds him that failure is something everyone carries, and is not a disqualification from who he is meant to be. It’s this conversation that lays the groundwork for his final battle with both Mjolinir and Stormbreaker against Thanos alongside Captain America and Iron Man. It sparks the decision to step down as King of New Asgard and set off with the Guardians of the Galaxy to find a new version of purpose that belongs singularly to him.
2
‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)
Infinity War strips away the confident King Thor had become via the spiritual journey of Ragnarok. It paints the God of Thunder as a grieving warrior driven purely by vengeance. The film opens with an iconic gut punch. Thor is forced to watch on as Thanos slaughters his best friend Hemidall and chokes out his brother Loki. He leaves him floating and broken in the wreckage in space, frostbitten and barely living before the Guardians of the Galaxy find him. Losing his home, brother and half his people in mere minutes takes the comedic swagger of Thor and replaces it with a dark sullen man with nothing to lose and a singular purpose: forging a weapon powerful enough to actually kill the Mad Titan.
That purpose sends him to Nidavellir, where he survives the raw, blistering force of a dying neutron star to restart the ancient forge. Tennage Groot sacrifices his own arm to complete Stormbreaker, giving Thor a weapon worthy of Thanos’s destruction. His arrival at the Battle of Wakanda remains one of the single greatest hero entrances in the franchise, touching down via the bifrost alongside Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot screaming, “Bring Me Thanos“, as his theme music swells, the only Avenger in the entire MCU to receive that Honor upon entrance. This climactic build-up makes the films ending some of the most memorable in any superhero movie. Thor drives Stormbreaker straight into the heart of Thanos, close enough to finish the job, but his hubris does gest the best of him. He needs Thanos to know it was him, to see his face, and that need for retribution over precision is met at the cost of the entire universe. It allows Thanos just enough time to snap his fingers and erase half of all life.
1
‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017)
Thor: Ragnarok takes away everything that the MCU has created around the myth of Thor. This is the wisest and most self-assured version of Thor to date, and is a version of him the franchise had not shown up until this point. In the span of one film he loses his hammer, his eye, his father, and eventually his entire home. Audiences love a struggling, checkered hero. Somehow, through it all, this film is the one that proves Thor’s powers never came from Mjolnir in the first place. Odin dies in Norway, but not before letting his son know that Asgard is about its people and not the place, a lesson that becomes essential, the moment Thor’s secret older sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) returns. She shatters his hammer effortlessly, and seizes the throne he was originally going to inherit. Realizing that he cannot beat her power head on, Thor makes the difficult choice to summon Ragnarok itself and destroy Asgard entirely rather than let Hela rule it. A decision that only truly makes sense when his father’s words have fully sunk in.
This movie also gives Thor his most joyful, lived-in relationships in the entire franchise. Stranded on Sakaar, he reunites with Bruce Banner, who has been trapped as the Hulk for two years and fears losing himself permanently. But, Thor’s steady and unwavering trust in his old friend reveals just how much he has grown since his original on-screen performance. His dynamic with Loki finally settles into something like brotherhood. Thor admits to him that he always thought the world of him, but alas, they are just simply different. The god finds a new kind of relationship with Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), someone who challenges him and reminds him what leadership actually looks like. When Hela does take his eye, it leaves Thor mirroring a scar of his father’s, the unmistakable mark of a war-hardened king rather than some golden prince. He gathers what remains of his people on a single ship bound for Earth, only for Thanos to intercept them in the film’s mid-credits scene setting up the devastating opening of Avengers: Infinity War and completing the emotional foundation for everything Hemsworth’s performance would carry through the rest of the saga.
- Release Date
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November 3, 2017
- Runtime
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131 minutes
- Writers
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Christopher L. Yost, Craig Kyle, Eric Pearson
- Producers
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Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Thomas M. Hammel, Victoria Alonso