The screenwriters of Avengers: Endgame have opened up about the process of writing Thor's arc in the movie, and how it was dramatically changed by Thor: Ragnarok. The Taika Waititi-directed third movie in the franchise changed Thor's character tone quite dramatically, making him a much more comedic role.
"Remember we were inheriting a Thor from Ragnarok who was very well and radically retoned from the previous Avengers movies," writer McFeely explained in a new interview with Vanity Fair. "So we had to fly in [Chris] Hemsworth and Taika Waititi. Word was getting out from Australia, 'Do you guys understand what we're doing with this movie?' And we're like, 'No, I don't know what you mean, are you making him an idiot, I don't understand?'"
His co-writer Christopher Markus explained that after that conversation, they were able to dive a little deeper into Thor's psyche. As Marvel fans will remember, he's in a pretty low place when the movie picks up.
"In Ragnarok, he loses his kingdom, his father, his sister, and his eyeball," he continued. "We just thought about what would happen if any one of us sustained that much loss and failure, and you would get incredibly depressed and probably retreat from the world. That is a comedic performance with a lot of pain behind it."
Thor will be returning again to the MCU in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. He got a dedicated trailer to him ahead of its release, but it doesn't reveal too much about his story. In it, we see Thor praying to his father Odin for the strength to fight a new enemy, which we're going to assume is Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.
The directors of the upcoming movie, the Russo brothers, have teased that the film will be a "complete reinvention" for Marvel. "I don't think the audience is expecting it at all, what happens in the movie, and its tone and its subject matter," Joe Russo said. "But I'm hoping it feels like another profound shift for them in that serialized story."
For more on all things MCU, check out our guide to the Marvel timeline and how to watch the Marvel movies in order.
