Will Thor Stay Fat After ‘Avengers: Endgame?’
Avengers: Endgame featured Thor (Chris Hemsworth) looking not his usual self. The typically ripped Asgardian is shown getting less fit: Simply put, Thor is fluffy throughout the film.
Several jokes were made at Thor’s expense and the audience appeared to thoroughly enjoy them. One example: When Rocket deadpanned to Thor, “You look like melted ice cream,” it got one of the biggest laughs in Avengers: Endgame. So does that mean Thor should stay fat for Love and Thunder?
It’s a silly question, to be sure, but there’s some substance lurking underneath that silly surface. Would a chunky Thor be appropriate for passing on his hammer to Natalie Portman? And more importantly, is “Fat Thor” fat-shaming?
Thor isn’t fat just for laughs
The ending of Avengers: Infinity War left the survivors shell-shocked, but arguably, no hero took their defeat harder than Thor. He had an opening to kill Thanos and stop him from executing the snap, but he failed. While no one blames Thor for this, he blames himself plenty.
When Avengers: Endgame flash-forwards to five years later, Thor has truly let himself go. He has packed on the pounds so much, he looks like he’s been eating 10 gallons of melted ice cream a day. And while this is good for a few laughs, there’s a sad undercurrent to it.
Thor is suffering from some sort of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or even depression. He may not have any external physical injuries, but he’s kicked himself practically to death. And if a god could die from drinking a lot of beer, we’d be mourning his passing too.
Thor recovers enough to land some decisive blows in the final battle, and he looks like he’s in better physical shape than he was as he flies off with his new buddies the Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s still not the same god he was. And he may never be again.
How will we see Thor in ‘Love and Thunder’?
With Natalie Portman proudly, but nervously, lifting Mjolnir high at San Diego Comic-Con, fans naturally thought that maybe she would be the lead of the movie and Hemsworth would only play a small role. However, director Taika Waititi has since stated that Hemsworth will still be Thor for the bulk of the movie, while Portman is “in it.”
That doesn’t tell us much about Portman, but as CinemaBlend notes, Thor’s ongoing shame could be part of the reason he would have to hand over his hammer to Jane Foster. He no longer feels worthy of being Thor, so staying fat could actually make sense in that context.
On the other hand, as writer Mick Joest notes: “If there’s a sizable gap of time between Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder, I don’t think it’s crazy to believe Thor will drop the weight. Thor regained a handle on his existence within the movie, and with his confidence back, I’m sure the God of Thunder will whip himself back into shape with a renewed passion. (After just one more milkshake.) He may even do it just to piss off Peter Quill and make him feel inferior, seemingly something he enjoyed in Avengers: Infinity War.”
Was ‘Avengers: Endgame” fat-shaming Thor?
Some people took exception to “fat Thor” in Avengers: Endgame, not so much in Thor himself, but in the reaction to him. Some fans were uncomfortable with the notion that Thor’s failure was being played for laughs.
However, this is not fat-shaming in the traditional sense. Many victims of fat-shaming get bullied because they struggle to lose weight. And understandably, they don’t like to see someone mocked when that someone is overweight – particularly when their muscular selves made them famous.
Fans on a Reddit thread disputed that this was fat-shaming, with one writing,
After the events of Infinity war he gave up on himself, when Hulk and Rocket come to get him he puts on a show pretending he’s fine but as soon as they bring up Thanos the light leaves his eyes and he’s no longer joking around, i think was can say he is traumatized from the events of infinity war. As he starts to help the Avengers he realizes he isn’t only damaged goods, he gets to talk with Frigga, she tells him that he isn’t an idiot but he’s is a failure, which makes him like everybody else. In addition to that, she tells him that the measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are.
Besides all that, a poll on CinemaBlend that asked if Thor should still be fat came back with a pretty decisive 77 percent saying no.
