Marvel Studios Initially Thought that Thor Wasn't Going To Work in THE AVENGERS
In the early days of Marvel Studios, they didn't seem to have the confidence in their characters that they do now. One character in particular that they were worried about was Thor. They were concerned that bringing the character into Joss Whedon's The Avengers would work. In fact, when the studio first started working on the film they were going to give him a much smaller role.
In an interview with THR, screenwriter Zak Penn, who received a story credit on The Avengers, talked about what people were thinking at Marvel Studios before The Avengers was released, explaining that they didn't think the success what going to last:
"It wasn't just me. I would say myself, Kevin Feige, Avi Arad, Ari Arad, all of us [said], 'This isn't going to last. This isn't going anywhere.'"
They all thought the superhero thing was a Hollywood fad that would die out quickly. Hell, when Penn jumped on board with Marvel to develop The Avengers, a lot of people told him that it was a poor career choice! Penn recalls:
"It was considered risky, believe it or not. I know that seems crazy right now, but a number of people said, 'You're really going to to go with this startup company and they're going to make [and finance] their own movies? That never works out.'"
Well, as you can see, it did work out. It worked out better than anyone at the time could have anticipated. Now everyone wants in on the superhero genre!
As far as Marvel's early thoughts on Thor go, Penn was cutting his role in The Avengers down because they apparently didn't have faith in him. That all changed, though.
"I remember Chris Hemsworth walking through the Marvel offices and being, 'Oh, my god, that guy is Thor!' Originally I was trying to reduce how much Thor was in the movie. Once it was clear that, no, this is going to work and they were excited about it, then I did not [reduce Thor in the script]. I stopped doing that."
Now, after Thor: Ragnarok, the character is as popular as ever! It's so interesting to hear information like this that gives us some insight into how Marvel Studios was feeling about what they were doing in the early days. Now, look at where they are at! Marvel is going continue making films for years to come.