And Your New 'Thor' is Chris Hemsworth. Uh...Who?

Put all that supastar speculation to rest. According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, Marvel has announced that its new Thor will be Star Fleet Captain Kirk. Nope, not Chris Pine, but the guy who plays his father in Star Trek, Australian actor Chris Hemsworth. Clearly a surprise announcement, Hemsworth has no other American credits to this point, although he'll appear in a few movies over the next year or so, including Cabin in the Woods for J.J. Abrams' protege, Drew Goddard. But this is by far his biggest role to date, and he'll play the Norse God in Kenneth Branagh's 2011 movie, and will join The Avengers as well in 2012.We've said multiple times that for Thor, size matters. Hemsworth is 6'3", and that's certainly good enough. Better than a 5'9" guy, anyway. Though nobody saw this coming, the decision to cast Hemsworth probably has a good deal to do with Star Trek, even though he's only in one scene. Trek is no doubt a successful reboot, and with Chris Pine seen as a future A-lister because of his work as James T. Kirk, Marvel could have looked at his quick rise as a reason to go with an unknown for the role of Thor, realizing that if it's marketed correctly, audiences may not care who swings the hammer. It can't hurt that Paramount is the distributor for both films, and it has clearly done a good job positioning Trek this summer. There have also been rumors that Natalie Portman and Josh Hartnett will join the cast, so that would help alleviate some worry that the studio might have about launching a huge summer movie out of a niche comic book hero led by a fairly unknown star.

Comments

[kUPD's Smartest Listener]

::Yawn::

[Asana]

"Better than a 5'9" guy, anyway."

HEY! Don't make me come over there Boyd!

[Torrent Download]

Another action packed film from Marvel. Can't wait to watch this. With a great cast I'm sure I will enjoyed it.