For many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Civil War is considered Avengers 2.5 since it brought together nearly all of the existing heroes and introduced a couple of new ones. But Thor's absence from the team-up movie that pitted Iron Man against Captain America led Chris Hemsworth to wonder whether he'd been written out of the mega-franchise.
"I remember being on the Age of Ultron press tour, and everyone was talking about Civil War," Hemsworth said in the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "I was like, 'What's Civil War?' I asked, 'Are you doing a side-project or something?' They're like, 'Oh no, Captain America, y'know? The next one is Civil War.' I'm like, 'Wait... Iron Man's in that?' And it's like, 'Yeah, but there's not just Iron Man. There's Vision. There's Spider-Man'"
"Wait — what the hell am I doing?'" Hemsworth wondered upon learning about the film. "[Marvel] said, 'You're doing your own thing.'"
His own thing would prove to be Thor: Ragnarok, but at the time, the actor was worried his tenure in the MCU was finished. "I thought, 'This is it. I'm being written out,'" Hemsworth continued.
Thor's absence was explained in-universe when he -- and Hulk/Bruce Banner -- had his own adventure in the cosmos for Ragnarok before Avengers: Infinity War eventually brought him back to Midgard. But Marvel Studios also released three short films, directed by Taika Waititi, that playfully addressed his absence.
"They had this great idea to just have Thor on a holiday, taking some time out here in Australia, just wanting to do some regular things and hang out with some regular folk," Hemsworth said of the Team Thor shorts.
Far from written out of the MCU, Hemsworth will return in next year's Thor: Love and Thunder, once again directed by Waititi. The movie will also include some of the Guardians of the Galaxy, last seen when Thor and the misfit team headed for the stars following Thanos' defeat in Avengers: Endgame. Originally scheduled for May, the film now arrives in theaters on July 8, 2022.
Source: The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe via ComicBook.com