Thor 2 Promises More Idris Elba, More Asgard, More… Stonehenge?
old gods do new jobs
Iridis Elba, veteran of many, many amazing television roles, this summer’s Prometheus and next summer’s Pacific Rim, talked to the Examiner about returning to the role of Heimdall in Thor 2, otherwise known as Thor: The Dark World. The actor delicately skipped around talking about the substance of the movie:
In the new film we’re going to get to know Heimdall the Asgardian a bit better, and we’re going to get to know Asgard a bit better,” Elba said. “I can’t say too much, but the expansion of Thor in his world is going to be huge.
We’ve already seen a few hints of the huge in T:TDW, in leaked set photos that I initially took to be the most boring photos of a rainy graveyard I’d ever seen and wondered why anyone had even bothered posting them. Then I noticed that there was a blue van in the photo, and what I’d mistaken for tombstones were actually huge obelisks.
Months ago, Elba was less certain that we’d be seeing any more of him in the sequel. It’s good to hear him enjoying his role as Heimdall, since his casting came with a considerable amount of (stupid) controversy. The actor is not unaware of it:
“My part was very small and functional in the first film, but I still felt very privileged to play him — especially since Heimdall looks a certain way and has a Nordic lineage — and here I was playing this character and bringing him to life in a different way,” Elba said. “It felt quite groundbreaking to be a part of that.”
At the time, some vocal fans became incensed at the diversification of the Asgardian pantheon in a movie where the hero, his brother, his parents, the majority of his friends, his girlfriend, her mentor, her assistant, and the two named recurring S.H.E.I.L.D. agents who appeared were all played by white actors. Though Elba was not the only non-white actor portraying a Norse god in the film, he became the focal point.
Aside from giant obelisks, which reportedly have something to do with the elivish realm of Svartalfheim, presumably the titular “dark world,” since the confirmed villains of the movie Malekith the Accursed and Algrim the Strong (played by Christopher Eccleston and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) are Dark Elves. That elvish realm, and connections to it, are likely involved if certain rumors are true. There have been some rumblings that the shoot might just spend some time at Stonehenge, just to capture that particular mystical feel, I’m sure.
(The Examiner via MTV Splashpage.)
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