Chris Hemsworth Thought Thor Was Written Out Of The MCU After Age Of Ultron

More interesting tidbits are emerging from Abrams Publishing's gargantuan (512-page) new book "The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe" by Paul Terry and Tara Bennett. Like yesterday's story about Joss Whedon landing the "Avengers" directing gig due to a recommendation from the producer's wife, this new nugget revolves around perception, namely that of Marvel Cinematic Universe headliner Chris Hemsworth. 

You see, Marvel Studios runs such a tight ship that often their own stars have no idea what is happening. Yes, even you reading at home might be more on the up-and-up than some of the actors who play the heroes and villains of the MCU. Heck, even actor Wyatt Russell had no clue what was happening in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," and co-star Sebastian Stan basically told the dude to quit asking while he was ahead. That is why Hemsorth temporarily felt like Thor was being quietly swept under the rug after he flew away from the Avengers compound at the end of 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

Here is the quote from the new book (via ScreenRant) where Hemsworth explains how he came to feel like he was fired and hadn't been told:

"I remember being on the 'Age of Ultron' press tour, and everyone was talking about 'Civil War.' 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 (Paul Bettany). There's Spider-Man (Tom Holland) ... [Marvel] said, 'You're doing your own thing.' ... I thought, 'This is it. I'm being written out.'"

Admittedly, this idea probably didn't come out of nowhere. At the time Hemsworth had come off of 2013's "Thor: The Dark World," which had been savaged by critics and fans. Then in "Age of Ultron" a good deal of Thor's scenes were left on the cutting room floor, with Hemsworth only getting a measly 14-minutes of screen time despite being second-billed behind Robert Downey Jr., who got 45-minutes onscreen in the ensemble team-up movie. That's right, Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch got more action than the God of Thunder, although it may stem from the fact that Thor is so vastly overpowered compared to other Avengers that he had to be subtly sidelined in order for there to be any challenge for the other heroes. 

Of course, once 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok" came along Hemsworth finally found the right balance of humor and pathos for the character. We also got to find out what Thor was actually up to while "Civil War" was happening, which turned out to be ... not much!