THOR: The Dark World

Chris Hemsworth will reprise his role as Marvel's Mighty Avenger for the third time in the same summer as Robert Downey Jr returns for another solo Iron Man film.


Marvel Studios' next film scheduled to hit theaters, Captain America, will be the last to be distributed under the Paramount Pictures banner. Beginning with next summer's ensemble superhero film The Avengers, the young studios' properties will be under the tutelage of Walt Disney Pictures.

Now it's been revealed that the summer of 2013 will not only feature Robert Downey Jr's return as Tony Stark for Iron Man 3, but the recently greenlit Thor sequel as well. Chris Hemsworth will reprise the larger than life character, but director Kenneth Branagh -- who garnered much praise for his dedication to the first film -- is not attached to return.

Marvel recently signed Shane Black, who made a name for himself in the 1980s and 90s with The Monster Squad, Last Action Hero and four Lethal Weapon films, to helm Iron Man 3 after director Jon Favreau left the project. Black, who has worked with Robert Downey Jr. before in the crime-comedy Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, is working in close association with screenwriter Drew Pearce to produce an original script. Don Cheadle, who portrayed LTC James Rhodes/War Machine in Iron Man 2, will also return for the third film which is scheduled for release on May 3, 2013.

There's no word yet whether other members of the first Thor film's cast, including Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Natalie Portman, Jaimie Alexander, Stellan Sarsgard, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg and Ray Stevenson, will be returning for Thor 2.

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tomandshell said:

I think Branagh was one of the reasons that Thor worked. He was able to balance the tone of the film quite well.

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The Josh said:

Very glad its being greenlit and getting things moving. Also glad it will come out the same summer as Iron Man 3. Hopefully Branagh gets brought back as he did great with this movie.

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beeshaw said:

I wonder how they'll spin off from The Avengers. That'll be the hardest part. Breaking everyone up for their individual movies.

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The Entity said:

I really hope so too! He did an absolutely awesome job! It was so easy to make this a cheesy film, but he managed to give us an awesome film!
I really hope the sequel will be of the same level as the first one!

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MarfMaster said:

I was just wondering the other day if Iron Man was going to be the only Avenger with a stand-alone sequel (Hulk doesn't count). I was only expecting Avengers sequels. I don't see how they can break the Avengers up for individual movies after they've brought them all together.

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Buttmunch said:

Cool. I didn't see this coming. I thought Thor was going to be a 1 shot with the rest of his film appearances saved for Avengers films. Glad that isn't the case. I'd love to see him kick more butt now that they have the lost-powers film done. Hopefully everyone from the first will be back (with the possible exception of Loki).

And I don't see a problem with the Avengers members having solo films after the Avengers movie. Like mentioned above, all of the superheros still have their own tales in the comics even though they are still apart of the Avengers. Just smaller threats. Hopefully they realize this. HUGE world wide threat = Avengers Assemble. Small, 1 bad guy problems = solo movie, with possible cameos from fellow Avengers.

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