‘Thor 2’ Release Date Gets Pushed Back

“Thor” was deemed somewhat of a critical flop but it made enough money to warrant a sequel. It was initially supposed to come out in July 2013, but Marvel has just pushed back the release date to November that same year.

Starring Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder, Anthony Hopkins as his father Odin and Natalie Portman as Thor’s love interest, the film proved a hit at the box office despite lukewarm critical reception.

Shortly after it came out, Marvel announced a sequel, which would have come a year after its “Avengers,” which also features the Thor character, along with countless other popular superheroes from the Marvel universe.

Now, Slash Film reports, the film has been pushed back. The reasoning is simple: Marvel was probably not confident it could face the fierce competition of the summer blockbuster season, so it chose the safer bet.

“July 2013 is already pretty crowded with tentpole films, including Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, and Joseph Kosinski’s Horizons,” the e-zine says.

“All those are set to open before Thor 2 would have, perhaps leaving an exhausted audience for Marvel’s hammer-iffic sequel. Phineas and Ferb will end up being a sort of family counter-programming option,” Slash Film notes.

The move is not uncommon, the same media outlet goes on to say, especially since other movie studios have done the same in previous years, to excellent results.

“Pushing a movie like Thor 2 into November is interesting, but not unheard of, since Harry Potter and Twilight have already staked out November releases in the past,” Slash Film writes.

“Patty Jenkins is slated to direct Thor 2, with Chris Hemsworth returning as Marvel’s blond god,” adds the e-zine.

As noted above, before “Thor,” Hemsworth will be seen in the same role in “The Avengers,” where he’ll be joining forces with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Captain America (Chris Evans) to save our planet from the biggest threat ever.