Tags
Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Frigga, Jane, Loki, Natalie Portman, Rene Russo, Sif, Thor, Thor 2, Tom Hiddleston
Just about every Thor fan (in which I include fans of Thor, Loki, Jane, whoever it is you love in these movies) knows that major additional photography was done for Thor‘s second installment, Thor: The Dark World. Some bits were acknowledged early on. Some bits were acknowledged only recently (that ending…more below). Some bits have never been publicly acknowledged.
I’m going to pause to take a moment to pat myself on the back, here, because I guessed at all these bits pretty much from the first viewing of the movie. Okay, maybe the second.
Back duly patted, let’s take a look back at Thor’s arc here. Specifically, let’s take a look at that Midgard scene where he’s hanging out with Jane in Earth-clothes.
What? You don’t remember that one? Let me refresh your memory.
Did you spot it? Lower left. The one where Thor’s hair’s in a loose ponytail and he’s wearing a black T-shirt and it looks like he might be at Jane’s place.
This is from the 2014 Thor: The Dark World calendar. (I confess, I bought it for Loki and his enigmatic, beguiling expressions. Inspiration, let’s call it. Loki wasn’t in it much…one picture?…so I sold it to a friend for half-off for her to give to her teenage daughter for Christmas.) Color me surprised when that Earth scene with Thor, whatever happened in it, was not in the movie. At all. With no place in which it could ever have been in the movie. Because Thor is never hanging out on Earth with Jane (or anyone else), not while relaxing. The only possibility I could come up with was that the tag with Thor showing up and sweeping Jane into his arms for a kiss (which wasn’t actually Natalie Portman as Jane, but Chris Hemsworth’s wife Elsa Pataky! — Hemsworth and Portman were at the time on opposite sides of that planet) had originally been entirely different. (Want more evidence Thor-in-black-T-shirt was with Jane? Skip to about 1:33 in this video I just found, which looks to have outtake footage from this scene.)
Hold on; it’s not that simple.
Thor: The Dark World originally had an entirely different ending.
Let’s turn to the final scene in the body of the movie. You know the one. The one that ends in “No. Thank you.” And our favorite trickster sprawled on the throne smirking, getting what he wanted all along. (…Yes, I believe Loki when he says in the first Thor “I never wanted the throne.” I don’t think he really wanted to be Asgard’s king, or spent his life plotting toward that aim. But he wanted to be Thor’s equal. He wanted what Thor had. Thor had Dad’s favor. Thor pretty much had it all, without even really trying. Thor had the throne in his future. And Loki’s perspective was warped by what he learned about himself in Thor. So when Dark World offered him an unexpected path to the throne? Christmas came early for our Loki.)
This scene finishes out the “Loki trilogy.”
But it didn’t originally end that way. Originally, Loki died — for real — on Svartalfheim. Tom Hiddleston talked about it in a 2018 Empire interview, which I transcribed the best bits of on Twitter. (Scroll down to the 10th tweet to skip to this part; Empire source included in initial tweet.) Finally, he admitted it!
Because you know what?
He lied about it before.
No kidding. Don’t believe me? Take a look back. “[The bridge scene (Loki in chains) and morphing] were the only scenes [added], yeah.”
I’m sure he was under orders to keep it secret, and fudging a simple yes/no question would have been tough. (But, for all those eagerly anticipating Avengers: Endgame, bear in mind, yep, Marvel does sometimes lie.)
This final scene is the one that really stood out to me early on as being additional photography even though no one wanted to admit it. Loki’s dialog contains a plot hole, Frigga’s eyeline seems incorrect, Thor looks like he lost a lot of weight during that battle with Malekith (and is shot at an odd angle…my guess, to hide how different he looks), and there’s no shot that actually makes it clear that Hemsworth’s actually in the room with either Rene Russo or Anthony Hopkins (…because he wasn’t).
You can read about why they resuscitated Loki, according to Hiddleston, in that same Twitter thread.
Taking a step back, we see that Loki’s arc was radically changed in Dark World (I mean, dead vs. not dead is a pretty big change to an arc). What about Thor’s arc? What about this Thor-in-T-shirt scene that (as far as I’m aware) Marvel has never given us, but that was in the movie when that calendar was put together?
A few months ago, I was trying to track down the “original ending” issue for Dark World yet again and came across this (stay with me for sourcing):
Q: what was the alternate ending to thor supposed to be? i know you mentioned it but you keep deleting the posts ): would you mind sharing again under a readmore or something just for a second?!
A: Thor defeated Malekith, recuperated on Midgard with Jane at his side, they had an adult discussion over their worlds being separate for a reason and agreed that its best for them both not to rely on a relationship but theyll always care about each other.
Odin then came around (in a Midgardian suit, no less), took Thor home, Thor reunited with Sif (their relationship was left purposefully ambiguous), and he settled in to continue his work as the emissary between Asgard and Earth.
Loki was dead so all thing he have done was a redemption of a sort as those were genuine.
A guy on this discussion forum posted this quote which he said was from Tumblr by a guy who worked on the movie but who had already taken down the post due to the “disclosure thing and dirty underwear” (I assume he means “non-disclosure and dirty laundry.”)
Is it all made-up? A hoax? This was posted in November 2013, long before it was officially confirmed that Loki had originally died. (As in, died-died.) And it would explain images of Thor relaxing in Earth-clothes with Jane. It also jives with a comment I recall director Alan Taylor making about wanting to put Sif to more/better use (sorry, I can’t find a source for that one). I think this is 100% truth.
WOAH! This is an entirely different movie. And ripe for so many other discussions (so many other discussions!), but this post has gone on long enough. If you want to join in the discussion, though, drop in a comment!