‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Spoilers: Why Chris Hemsworth Felt ‘Liberated’ With Thor’s Short Hair

Does it ever feel boring to be Thor? As far as Chris Hemsworth is concerned, it can be, especially when you’ve already done several movies about the god of thunder for Marvel. However, “Thor: Ragnarok” came in like a breath of fresh air for Hemsworth. For one thing, Marvel got a new director, Taika Waititi, to inject some humor into the film. For another, Thor is sporting a fresh new look.

For the past few films, Thor had on long blond locks. But because of his defeat at the hands of Hela (Cate Blanchett), Thor’s locks were chopped off to signify his downfall. Hemsworth told Entertainment Weekly that he really appreciated Thor’s new look because he got to do the movie from a fresh perspective.

“When I didn’t have the wig on, I instantly felt like I could move and speak and react differently. Once we aesthetically stripped a lot of that away, it allowed the whole thing to take on a different attitude. It felt like a completely different character, and that was hugely liberating and freeing as an actor because I had become a bit bored with myself,” he said.

“Thor: Ragnarok” has a lot of exciting new players aside from Hela, and one of them is Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). In the comic books, Valkyrie has long blonde locks as well, but Waititi decided to let Thompson keep her own hair. For her part, Thompson said it’s just great.

“If we were also dedicated to the source material, Valkyrie would potentially be a female Thor but she’s fighting in basically a bathing suit, which is also absurd. So we had a conversation of, what is a strong look? Like, she should probably be in pants. That probably makes more sense for the kind of work she’s doing. And we had conversations about her sort of feeling like a tomboy and having a certain masculinity about her while still being very much a woman,” she said.

Some people are actually worried that Waititi completely changed the tone of the franchise. But Tom Hiddleston, who plays the mischievous Loki in the franchise, provided some words of assurance to Empire. “Taika’s been so respectful to the mythology,” he said. “But he’s injected so much humour into it. He’s given every character truly laugh-out-loud moments without betraying their integrity.”

“Thor: Ragnarok” will be released on Nov. 3.