More Thor Details Reveal Why Stuart Townsend Departed, Samuel L. Jackson's Appearance and More
Posted 03.15.10 by Ryan
Latino Review's interview with an anonymous Marvel insider turned up some timeline and costume details for the upcoming adaptation of Thor, and the most recent interview with the nameless source revealed why Stuart Townsend abruptly departed the movie over "creative differences" after being cast as Fandral, a friend of Thor's and part of the Warrior Three.
It appears he wasn't happy with
the limited screen-time of his character Fandral. There was friction
with him from the very beginning as far back as his screen test which
he basically blew off. He wasn't the first choice of either Marvel or
the film's producers to begin with, but when they brought him in they
liked him. They thought he did a good job. It looks like the fact that
his character doesn't have a pivotal role in the movie made him sort of
slack off and say, "Well, f**k this movie. I'm not the lead, so who
f**king cares?" They say he had a similar attitude when he made The
Lord of the Rings ten years ago and look how that turned out. They
replaced him with Viggo Mortensen and the rest is history. He failed to
realize the movie is not called Fandral, it's called Thor.
The movie's not about him.
Its surprising, because he was one of the
longest working actors on the project yet he still acts like a diva.
There was an incident where he had a costume test and blew that off.
The studio had people working under deadlines fly in to meet him and he
showed up six hours late. When they complained, his response was
something like "Oh, well could we just do it now?" Talk about
arrogance.
Townsend's departure from the cast isn't the only unusual casting development for Thor. British actor Tom Hiddleston, who plays Thor's arch-nemesis Loki, was originally brought in to audition for the thunder god role, and wound up with the role of the villain instead.
He's great and what's funny is
that Tom had actually come in to audition for Thor but he's very tall
and very thin. Kind of lanky. Marvel said, "No", but then it came up
that maybe he should audition for Loki and he apparently put himself on
tape and was amazing. He had also worked with Kenneth Branagh already
in London. This movie is as much an origin story for Loki as it is for
Thor and he's not only the hero's nemesis but his brother. How do you
deal with a situation like that where the very person who is trying to
destroy you is your adopted brother? In the script, Thor is basically
banished to Earth because he's arrogant and proud and must learn what
it is to live among mortals. And while the cat's away, the mouse will
play.
While he's gone, Loki starts discovering things about himself,
including his desire to be all powerful. He wants to be as well loved
as Thor and that jealousy starts creating these complications. "Why
can't I be the ruler? Why am I always in his shadow?" So he starts
developing those feelings while Thor's gone. It's a very good script
with pretty much half of the movie in Asgard and the other half on
Earth. I think people will be pleased with the way it unfolds.
One of the unconfirmed appearances in Thor is that of Samuel L. Jackson, who claims he's not sure his character Nick Fury will appear in the movie, even after he signed a contract to appear in nine Marvel movies. The Marvel insider says that Jackson is not in the script.
In the official script version,
he is not. That could change in time though. He wasn't in the original
script of Iron Man either but they changed it late in the game. The
same can be said for Robert Downey Jr. In fact the only cameo of great
significance is from Stan Lee.
Thor opens May 20, 2011, with The First Avenger: Captain America following on July 22, 2011. The Avengers opens the following year on May 4, 2012, and is according to Marvel's plan according to the insider.
That's what [Marvel is] trying to do, line them up like that. May of every year, there will be a new Marvel movie out.