Earlier today I ran a story about the beautiful Kat Dennings being cast in Thor, and talked about how the Variety announcement of the film said that it was about medical student Don Blake becoming the god of thunder Thor. I was bummed out for a couple of reasons, but one of them was because nothing I had heard until now indicated that Blake was in the movie (at least not in traditional ‘cripple who slams his staff on the ground to become Thor’ mode). In fact, when I was on the set of Iron Man 2 Kevin Feige all but said there was no Don Blake.
Herc at Aint It Cool has done some research and found that, according to his sources, Variety is wrong. The movie opens with Thor in Asgard, and has been cast out of his home following some evil machinations. When he lands in a desert on Earth he meets Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster and her Norwegian professor, played by Stellan Skarsgard.
This sounds much more like what I heard was the case months ago; I just figured that some rewrites had happened after my set visit, as director Kenneth Branagh has been on the project for months now – long enough to change vital aspects of the script. I’m hoping that Herc’s source is correct and that Variety got this wrong.
One of the things that I never liked about Don Blake is that he has the whole Marvel superhero thing wrong. He’s a cripple who suddenly turns into a huge, handsome god when he taps his walking stick. In fact, Don Blake was created as a way to teach Thor lessons in humility. The Marvel superhero should never have an alter ego who really, really wants to be the superhero. Like Spider-Man and The Hulk, being a superhero should be at least partially problematic for your average Marvel superhero. Thankfully Don Blake was eventually removed from the equation, leaving Thor to just be Thor.
Be a total fucking gimp on our message boards.