The MCU is home to the biggest screen's most popular heroes, and it's been able to accomplish what many others have tried. The franchise is in Phase Four, and while it feels disconnected so far, it's all building to wards a grand event that will reshape the franchise forever.
Thor has been a mainstay since Phase One, and though his movies aren't always great, fans genuinely love the God of Thunder.
Thor's second film, The Dark World, was a disappointment critically, but the movie was intended to look much different at one point. Let's see what happened.
Thor Has 4 Marvel Films
In 2011, Thor made its way to the big screen, kicking off the God of Thunder's time in the MCU. He had been teased in a previous film, and at long last, this beloved character was going to earn his place in the Avengers Initiative.
Chris Hemsoworth, who was still an unknown at that time, was cast as Thor. There were some solid perforemrs up for the role, including Tom Hiddleston, who played Loki in the film. Despite the competition, Hemsworth snagged the gig, and he's done tremendous work with the character.
Thor's first film was a success, and suddenly, he was a factor in the MCU's future.
The following year, Thor appeared in The Avengers, the film that showed the world that the MCU was more than just a flavor of the week. From that point on, Thor was involved in all the franchise's biggest team-ups films.
To date, the God of Thunder is the only MCU character to have four solo outings. His most recent one, Love and Thunder, recently made its debut on the big screen.
Thor is loved now, but the character has had some uneven films, including his second solo adventure.
'Thor: The Dark World' Was A Critical Misfire
2013's Thor: The Dark World remains one of Marvel's lowliest offerings, despite pulling down solid numbers at the box office, and introducing fans to the Reality Stone.
The picture, which was Hemsworth's second solo outing as the God of Thunder, did manage to make nearly $650 million. That said, the flick was poorly received, especially when compared to other Marvel offerings of the same era.
It has a 66% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 75% with fans. This places it at 28th overall on the MCU rating list.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems with getting this movie off the ground. Patty Jenkins, the brilliant director behind Wonder Woman, was originally set the direct the project. However, Jenkins did not feel like she could do much with the script, and she went on her way.
Enter Alan Taylor, who had worked on shows like Mad Men, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones.
"[Marvel president] Kevin Feige was always smart about looking at what worked and didn’t in the last iteration and trying to retool from that. So I came in to ‘bring some Game of Thrones to it,'" Taylor said.
Taylor completed the film, which went on to underwhelm once it finally hit theaters. At one point, however, the movie was going to look a lot different, but interference had a hand in shaping the movie that fans got to see.
It Was Going To Look A Lot Different
In an interview, director Alan Taylor spoke about some of the elements of the film that he originally had in place.
According to Taylor, "The version I had started off with had more childlike wonder; there was this imagery of children, which started the whole thing... There was a slightly more magical quality. There was weird stuff going on back on Earth because of the convergence that allowed for some of these magical realism things. And there were major plot differences that were inverted in the cutting room and with additional photography. People [such as Loki] who had died were not dead. People who had broken up were back together again. I think I would like my version.”
This would have made for an entirely different experience for fans, who largely didn't enjoy the film itself. There's no telling how well it would have been received, but surely it could not have been worse than what was offered up all those years ago.
Thor: The Dark World was supposed to be a lot different, but Marvel had other ideas, and they shaped it into the underwhelming picture that the fans watched. It's a classic example of studio interference hampering a project instead of helping it.