Rumors That Natalie Portman had to be ‘Forced’ Back for Thor 2 Not Really Surprising

Marvel Studios not getting along with their talent is starting to be a trend. Somebody should try to figure out what or who the problem is and fix it. One actor having issues is one thing, but when you keep having those stories popping up with different names, it has the look of an internal problem.

Can’t say I blame Nat. Even from the plot description, it doesn’t even seem like there is a reason for her (or anyone from Earth) to be in this movie.

I’m not all that enthusiastic about Thor 2 after Jenkins’ firing either. Given her penchant for sympathetic villains, Jenkins’ Thor (and, more importantly, her Loki) would have been awesome. I wouldn’t have blamed Portman if she’d split.

Though I’m glad she didn’t — maybe it’s just the height difference, but she and Hemsworth are an adorable couple.

I totally forgot she was even in the first movie. She’s such a good actress, what a waste of time to be an object of desire. Bor~ing.

Definitely the height difference. They’re such polar opposites that it’s so cute.

Hollywood talent seem to have trouble wrapping their head around the whole: “This is not YOUR movie. You are NOT more important than the character your playing or OUR story that you’re telling” thing that comes with comics. Many a talented artist and/or writer have found their ambitions stymied by the DC/Marvel dropping the hammer on stories using their characters in a way not in line with the companies vision.

There’s a reason the movie is called THOR, not JANE. She’ll get over it.

From what I could tell about Cuba/Warmachine it wasn’t a problem with the actor as much as they wanted someone different and could afford “more actor”. So they switched. I remember getting that impression because even Cuba was surprised when they recast him.

As for the Hulks… that’s not surprising considering how badly the movies did.

I hate it when actors do this. If she wasn’t sure she wanted to do more than one film she shouldn’t have signed a contract saying she would. It’s just unprofessional.

Cuba? Don’t you mean Terrence Howard?

Cuba? You mean Terrence Howard? I heard part of it was a money problem but I also remember him being excited to be in the sequel and, like you said, surprised to learn he was recast.

For the Ed Norton story, Kevin Feige was really public about disliking the guy. Then, there’s also the really hard negociations with Jon Favreau for Iron Man 2, even after the success of the first film, and the hard negociations with Mickey Rourke for the same film…
Like I said, I can understand having a disagreement with somebody once in a while but the studio only made 6 films and they keep being stuck in controversy. That’s not normal.

Loki shouldn’t be sympathetic though. He’s delusional and imagines slights against him. He claims Thor threw him off the edge of the broken Bifrost. He sets up scenarios to torment people and get upset. If you expand the character analysis to the comics you’ll see writers bring up such mythological events as his lips being sewn shut and Thor literally tells Loki “No that didn’t happen, you made it up”. Loki lies to the point that on occasion he can’t even remember what’s true or not. Loki grew up with a family that loved (you can fight me on this one) him instead of the frost giant father that hated him, was treated as a prince, and is constantly offered forgiveness for terrible acts he commits. There is very little I can possibly think is sympathetic about him besides the fact that he possibly doesn’t understand what he had.

not all light skin men are the same person Kim.

He’s the god of mischief. Lying is HIS thing. And he was lied to. I think he just can’t get over that.

I could tell you all stories about Natalie’s on-set fits… but I’d have to kill you after.

Sure, Loki’s awful. But that makes turning him into a sympathetic character all the more impressive an accomplishment, right? If Jenkins could manage to make people feel sympathy for a real-life murderer like Aileen Wuornos, imagine what she could have done with Loki! Woulda been a cool movie…I’m sad we’re not going to get to see it.

That’s what makes stories interesting. Where comics (and stories in general) succeed is when the heroes aren’t purely heroic and where the villians aren’t pure evil. Layers, dimensions, these make a story riveting. A villian just being predictably evil is boring, cliche, tired, and not a good story. In fact, one of my complaints about The Avengers was that Joss Whedon is usually so good at delivering interesting and sympathetic villains and yet Loki was very solidly horrible throughout with no room for sympathy or even comprehension. I have a feeling/hope that this will not be the case in Thor 2 and the next Avengers.

I think she signed the contract based on Jenkins being the director. When that was changed, I can understand her being frustrated and wanting to back out.

Go Natalie!

honestly though after watching thor, jane could simply not have been in thor 2 and i wouldn’t have been upset in the slightest. if her purpose in the movie was to help thor and be the ‘essential’ love interest, she served that. they can move on. if natalie doesn’t want to return let it serve as character development for thor.

I wonder if they want to leave because they got skipped in the Avengers

Hopefully, Kat Dennings won’t come back.

This almost guarantees they’ll kill off her character in this.

The Ed Norton thing was also Norton wanted an unprecedented amount of creative control on Avengers, which Marvel didn’t want him to have.

I thought she signed on for more than one film when she did Thor, and you’d have to be daft to think that the director was set in stone for anything nowadays.

I feel that a lot of the sympathy for Loki had already been used up in Thor, and Whedon just carried on from that.

Besides, the legions of Loki-fangirls can’t ALL be deluded :P

I seriously hope so.

Kill her off, she won’t be missed.

Rats. I hated her portrayal (she is a fine actress, I just hated this part!), & there was no chemistry whatsoever between the 2 of them.

You’ve probably hit right on the reason she didn’t want to come back. Portman, reduced to playing a shallow, undeveloped love interest with no other role than to be a pretty face for Thor to angst over? I wouldn’t want it either.

I was a bit disappointed about the lack of gravitas that Loki possessed in Avengers—he came off as a spoiled, whiny brat instead of a mad god. I would like to see him live up to his potential in Thor 2.

As for choice of director, I am unfamiliar with both, but generally agree that Jenkins getting canned is disappointing. But who knows? Her Thor 2 might have sucked. If Taylor’s film sucks, fans will play the blame game, and if it rocks, few will care that Jenkins was replaced.

Completely agree. I have no problems at all with Kat Dennings as an actress, but while her character Darcy threw out a couple of zingy one-liners and looked cute standing around, there was absolutely no reason for her to be in the movie. She added nothing to the story and had no connection whatsoever to anyone else in the movie. It was a screaming case of demographics: “Insert cute, snarky, popular tween chick as a sidekick for the teenage boys to ogle and the teenage girls to think ‘she’s so cool’!”

So am I seriously the only one who loved Jane in Thor? I would not be devastated by her absence in an upcoming Thor film, but to kill her character? Are you serious? Of all the Phase One movies I can honestly say that Thor did so right by its female characters. I could write reams on this but I’ll just say that ya’ll must have been watching a different movie. Or more likely, you came into this movie expecting so little of it’s female characters that you couldn’t see past those expectations and realize that, hey, this character is actually pretty amazing. The same thing happened with Natasha in The Avengers and I am so tired of this shit. Also Darcey. Was. The. Shit. I know this post is half a year old by now, so I doubt anyone is even going to see this or care. Whatever.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind if they dropped Portman’s character completely and had Sif as the love interest. In the first film I felt Hemsworth had more on-screen chemistry with Skarsgård than Portman.

A lot of us love him as a magnificent villain though. It doesn’t bother me that he was less sympathetic in The Avengers, but it does bother me that his plan was utter rubbish. That’s the bit that strikes me as OOC.

*SPOILER ALERT* (Just in case someone HASN’T seen the Avengers)

I got the idea that the plan wasn’t his, but Thanos’. It’s always easier to blame things on Thanos :P

Natalie, you’ll probably get your wish and get killed off in Thor 2. As for Jenkins, if she wanted to go too far outside the Marvel “flavor” is establishing with these films, I can certainly understand the decision to push her aside. There’s too much riding on everything. However, I along with a lot of other movie fans, would love to see more women directors in this genre.

I think you nailed it. Marvel is operating in much the same exact way as their publishing arm has been since after Stan Lee left…. and I think Kevin Feige might very well be Marvel Studios’ own Jim Shooter.

No insult to Portman, Jenkins, Marvel or anyone else, but a story about someone having to (gasp!) do their job isn’t news to me; I could get that from anyone in my office. I understand that actors may have to lay on the publicity BS about the “challenge” and “fun” of their current roles and whatnot, but I don’t need their loyalty or enthusiasm, I just need them not to be Kristen Stewart.