Thor 2; Brian Kirk, director of Luther, Game of Thrones & The Tudors, in talks to direct.

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Thor as seen in The Avengers; May 2012

UPDATE:-

Marvel Studios have since revealed that the director of Thor 2 had not been settled and current front runner is the director of the Oscar winning Monster, Patty Jenkins

Marvel Studios are wasting no time in getting everything set for the sequel to the year’s most successful Super hero movie. Thor has made just shy of $450m (it isn’t quite finished yet) around $100m more than the next best X-Men: First Class; it’s has also catapulted Chris Hemsworth onto Hollywood’s A-List. With the star set to appear in the long delayed, Joss Whedon produced, Horror movie Cabin in The Woods and the remake of Red Dawn, before playing a big part in two of next summer’s biggest gambles, and potentially biggest films, Joss Whedon directed ensemble piece The Avengers (Again as Thor), and Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron starring Snow White & The Huntsman (in key starring role as The Huntsman) both Hemsworth and the character are likely to be as hot as it gets by the time Thor 2 arrives on the 26^th of July 2013. This, and a very positive reaction by moviegoers to the first film mean that it should take a very poor sequel to prevent Thor 2 from making a significant increase in takings over Thor; the fact that its international audience is already large is another good sign. (60% of its worldwide gross was from the international market, where American Super hero films usually take at least one sequel to get a higher gross from the international market, if not just to get around 50 / 50)

Of course with Thor bowing this summer and returning next summer there’s always the danger that the character may be over exposed by then; although that seems less likely if the quality is maintained, upped and year on year releases have hardly proven disastrous for other adaptations like Lord of The Rings, Twilight and Harry Potter.

Brian Kirk has made a name for himself as a director on some off the finest shows on television. He directed the first two episodes of the international hit show (which features Thor Co-Star Idris Elba (Heimdall) ) as well as directing episodes 3 – 5 of the even more acclaimed Game of Throes. (Episodes Lord Snow; Cripples, Bastards & Broken Things; and The Wolf & The Lion) According to Variety it is his work on thrones in particular that has shot him to the top of the list for Thor 2. The ability to handle multiple plot threads, large casts and to make a serious, grounded drama out of a story with a fantasy setting are key elements (not to mention a more than adequate ability to direct action)  for the film. Current thinking (not to mention fanboy wishing) is that the sequel will spend even more time away from Earth and will explore more of Asgard ad the Asgadians as well as the other 9 realms. With an increased budget the opportunity will be there for at least one of the other races, trolls, Dark Elves, Dwarves (Will the world have had its fill of those too with The Hobbit and 1001 Snow White movies?) and it will be interesting to see what both an expanded budget and a lack of need to return to Earth could do with these other alien races and worlds / realms. 

Much of the speculation surrounding an even greater off Earth focus than Thor, comes from the praise that was given to the film’s other realms scenes over the Earthbound ones; it also stems from much of the criticism of Green Lantern, which had a similar task to perform, a cosmic super hero, aliens, powers that are so far beyond humans as to seem like magic, but which was heavily criticised for putting too much of a focus on Earth and not having the courage to take the story away.

Behind the scenes with Thor director & Thor 2 Producer Kenneth Branagh

A look at the Thor Blu-Ray and another look at The Consultant, one of the major extras on the Blu-Ray, after the spoiler below.

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Captain America Spoiler!

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There’s also speculation (not just me honest) that we may discover exactly where in the nine Realms the Red Skull was sent to at the End of Captain America, even if only on the legendary Marvel Studios end credit sequence. (With Iron Man 3 apparently a direct follow on from The Avengers it is thought that the Easter Egg for that film with be related to Iron Man 3.)

Thor Blu-Ray...

The Consultant...