Exclusive: Thor's Roommate Darryl May Return To The MCU To Coincide With 'Thor: Love & Thunder'

Director Taika Waititi stepping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Ragnarok completely revitalized the God of Thunder's film franchise. Not only did it take Thor into a weirder side of sci-fi, but it also injected the franchise with new comedic energy. Helping to set the stage for Thor: Ragnarok was a short film that debuted at San Diego Comic-Con in 2016. Entitled Team Thor, the short revealed what Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was up to during the events of Captain America: Civil War, and it involved a young man named Darryl as his normal, human roommate.

Since then, we've gotten two more short films featuring Darryl, and it sounds like he might make a return to the MCU in conjunction with the upcoming Thor: Love & Thunder.

/Film spoke to Marvel's What If...? executive producer Brad Winderbaum over the weekend about the forthcoming animated series. Since Winderbaum served as an executive producer on Thor: Ragnarok and produced the short films featuring Australian actor, writer, and director Daley Pearson as Darryl, we asked if Taika Waititi might be cooking up another short film featuring the charming character who keeps getting strange roommates. Here's the brief exchange from our interview:

You mentioned you're executive producing Thor: Love and Thunder. One of the fun things that came out of Thor: Ragnarok were the short films showing what Thor was up to during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Is there a chance that Taika Waititi has put together another short to create a bridge between the events of Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder?

Are you talking about Darryl?

Yeah.

Are you saying you want more Darryl?

I think everybody wants more Darryl.

Well, maybe you might get more Darryl. It's possible.

***

We want to emphasize that Winderbaum's tone during that last remark wasn't the kind of "anything is possible" answer that Marvel honcho Kevin Feige likes to give when he doesn't want to confirm or deny something happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was more of a teasing tone that truly seemed to suggest that we'll be seeing more of Darryl sometime in the near future.

The first short featuring Darryl was Team Thor, and it showed Thor rooming with an ordinary office worker in an average apartment. Thor was in the midst of trying to make sense of a vision in his head about the future of Asgard and the Infinity Stones, and he just needed a break from it all. Darryl even helped Thor compose e-mails to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers about their conflict

Team Thor: Part 2 revealed even more of Thor's activities on Earth. In this short, Darryl tried to teach Thor about life on Earth, and the God of Thunder tried to get a job to help pay rent since his Asgardian money has no value in Australia.

Finally, the most recent short was Team Darryl. Since Thor had to leave, Darryl needed a new roommate. Unfortunately, the only response came from The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), who somehow found his way to Earth and turned out to be an even weirder roommate than Thor. The Grandmaster actually recruited Darryl as his new assistant/bodyguard to replace the late Topaz (Rachel House), who perished in Thor: Ragnarok.

This makes us wonder whether there's another short film featuring Darryl or if he's now become part of The Grandmaster's entourage. Jeff Goldblum was spotted at a rugby match with Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi during production of Thor: Love & Thunder, making fans think that The Grandmaster would return in some capacity in the sequel. If that's the case, maybe we'll see Darryl making an appearance alongside the Sakaar ruler. Or maybe Goldblum was in town to shoot a new short with Darryl.

Personally, what I'd like to see is a short film showing what Darryl was dealing with after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Getting Darryl's perspective on what happened on Earth after The Snap offers plenty of comedic material, and it would make the perfect subject for a new mockumentary short. But we'll be happy with whatever Taika Waititi might have up his sleeve.