He was once the strapping and magnificently muscled blond beefcake of the Avengers. Thor’s devastation over the events of Infinity War, compounded by all the recent family losses in his life, have left him a very different figure five years later. Audience amusement over the new out of shape ‘Fat Thor” has been mixed with accusations of fat shaming. Joe and Anthony Russo just revealed there is a “very funny” deleted scene which embarrasses the Asgardian god even more.
During a lengthy spoilers chat on Sirius FM, the brothers describe one scene they loved which had to be cut.
Anthony Russo said: “If you remember at the end when Thor is saying goodbye to Valkyrie… In the ending, we wanted to keep it tight, so we were looking for things to squeeze there, but he had this beat with Valkryie after he turns over the kingdom where she puts her arm on his shoulder and he sort of starts to lean in for a kiss.
“She goes, ‘What are you doing?’ And he goes, ‘Oh, I thought that touch…’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, that was, like, a goodbye tap I was giving you.’ It was a really funny beat, but we cut it.”
This is likely to provoke fans for more than one reason.
Is Thor being rejected because he is overweight?
In this case, almost certainly no. Thor and Valkyrie already have a spikey relationship, but there has never been any hint of romance. However, the clumsy move and rejection still reinforce the new perception that being out of shape is a source of amusement.
There is also the question of Valkyrie’s sexuality.
Tessa Thompson has spoken openly about planned scenes from Thor Ragnarok which involve her relationship with another female warrior.
In the ongoing absence of any representation of gay characters among the main characters (Joe Russos’ grieving man in the support group is negligible at best and downright pandering and patronising at worst) having Thor’s failed kiss as Valkyrie’s only affectionate moment so far might seem misjudged.
However, the two stars apparently had graet fun filming the moment. Joe Russo added: “It was really cute, and it was mostly improvised by the two of them, so it was very funny.”
FULL INTERVIEW AT SIRIUS FM
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