Because he’s funnier, and more fun to play. As this column has already noted, Waititi is entirely comfortable sending up Hemsworth’s hunky doofus status because the Aussie himself is clearly entirely comfortable with this new, cheerful and open-hearted (if slightly blond) version of the Norse superhero. Fortunately, we live in a very different version of reality. Out there in the multiverse somewhere there is probably a movie in which Thor finally cracks under the weight of all that objectification and goes on a bloodthirsty rampage of revenge, like some horrific cross between the Two Ronnies’ classic The Worm that Turned sketch and a male-led take on Kill Bill. Won’t somebody please think of the poor Aussie actor’s feelings in all this? Can’t those mean women and liberals just leave him alone, for Odin’s sake? Some point to the fact that Hemsworth complained ( pretty half-heartedly, it must be said) about having to take his top off in the last Thor episode, 2017’s Ragnarok. If a female character were treated in the same way, there would be an outcry, goes the common refrain.
