Beloved Asgardian hero Thor takes center stage this week as Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, directed by Taiki Waititi, makes its debut. To commemorate the release of the most recent film focused on this original Avenger, let’s take a look back at some truly iconic Thor moments.  Starting off with…

“I have no plans to die today…” (Thor – 2011)

Marvel’s movie Thor introduced audiences to the daring and bold warrior of Asgard in 2011. As Thor travels through the land of the Frost Giants, he is warned of the perils he and his companions will face. The comment shows how confident he is in the face of danger, although at that time Thor means to sacrifice himself to save his friends. Creation of the Frost Realm sequence of near-continuous action was supported by a creative process in which the film team used previs to block the composition and timing of shots.  Visualization within digital versions of the sets also helped to inform camera placements, sight lines and stunts.  

(Previs by The Third Floor from Thor. © 2011 MARVEL)

“You know, with all that power, I thought you’d hit harder. ” (Thor: The Dark World  – 2013)

Leader of the Dark Elves Malekith seeks to destroy the Nine Realms by capturing and unleashing a weapon known as the Aether. A visualization process, with work by The Third Floor, supported the filmmakers’ design and planning of  the action-packed battle where Thor takes on the army of Dark Elves. Thor stabs Malekith and uses one of Erik Selvig’s devices to teleport him, along with his ship, to Svartalfheim. 

(Previs by The Third Floor of Thor’s battle with Malekith from Thor: The Dark World. © 2013 MARVEL)

“Is that the best you can do?” (Avengers: Age of Ultron – 2015)

With plans to wipe out the whole of humanity on Earth, Ultron created a device that would lift the city of Novi Grad skyward and cause it to create a meteoric impact when it crashed back to the surface. A battle ensues between the Avengers and Ultron’s drone army.  After Thor’s remarks, Ultron only laughs and summons more drones, leveling up the intensity of the fight in one of many scenes visualized through previs and postvis.

(Digital characters visualized into plate photography via postvis produced by The Third Floor with the film team for Avengers: Age of Ultron. © 2015 MARVEL)

(Final shot by the VFX team from Avengers: Age of Ultron. © 2015 MARVEL)

“He’s a friend from work!” (Thor: Ragnarok – 2017)

As Thor readies to face the famed champion on Sakaar, Hulk emerges, causing Thor to shout in excitement. As the crowd looks on in confusion, Thor calls up to the Grandmaster and says, “We know each other. He’s a friend from work!”. The Thor vs. Hulk arena fight was one of many scenes in which performances of the digital hulk would play seamlessly alongside the live actors. Previs, on-set visualization with motion capture and postvis composites were some of the techniques used to plan and represent the character’s performance and timing. 

(Production plate of the Thor-Hulk arena fight in Thor: Ragnarok. © 2017 MARVEL)

(The Third Floor’s postvis, blocking in the Hulk to the shot in Thor: Ragnarok. © 2017 MARVEL )

“I went for the head…” (Avengers: Endgame – 2019)

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos told Thor he “should have gone for the head.”  Thor gets another chance in Avengers: Endgame, only to realize that this revenge isn’t enough to bring everyone who was snapped away back. Across both of these films, the pure scale of the storylines and visual action saw The Third Floor working with the film team to visualize thousands of shots to support creative development and production.

(Thor, Iron Man and Captain America stand up to Thanos in an unforgettable moment from Avengers: Endgame, depicted here in The Third Floor’s previs. © Marvel 2017)

After searching for inner peace after Avengers: Endgame, Thor is sprung back into action in Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder – out now!  Catch up with Thor in this newest film now.