Idris Elba joins Marvel Studios' 'Thor'

Idris Elba has joined the cast of "Thor," Marvel Studios' film centering on the Norse god of thunder.

Kenneth Branagh is directing the adaptation of the Marvel comic. Chris Hemsworth will star as Thor; Tom Hiddleston will play Loki, and Natalie Portman is the love interest Jane Foster.

Elba will play Heimdall; as the guardian of Asgard, he stands on the BiFrost Bridge ready to defend the city from intruders.

Shooting is due to begin in mid-January in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Kevin Feige is producing.

Elba, repped by ICM and Ken McReddie Associates in London, most recently appeared in Screen Gems' "Obsessed" opposite Beyonce Knowles. He next appears in Screen Gems' heist thriller "Taken" and will have a turn in Dark Castle's DC Comics adaptation "The Losers."

Comments

[gift ideas]

Great cast this is shaping up to be. .He's black. it's a norse mythology movie. doesn't work. affirmative action in the movie industry is funny

[rekh]

As a Black man, I just have to say this is pretty stupid casting ... kinda like casting white Egyptians. He would have been better caste as Sutar; the heat ... down south, etc. Heimdall ... nope.

[Aaron]

You do realize that every time a black person gets a job it doesn't automatically mean that "affirmative action" was in play right?

Seriously I think people have no idea what that term even refers to.

I'm not saying that I would have picked Elba for that role, but you're a dumbass if you don't think he has the acting chops or resume to deserve good roles.

"Affirmative action"...seriously, how reactionary can you get?

[Cole Black]

Yes "gift ideas", I know. Poor thing. It ain't easy being a biggot. Especially these days.

[Juan.D]

A possibility: in a recent story arc in the Thor comic book, all of the Norse gods' souls/essences where trapped in human bodies post-Ragnarök (Ragnarök = Norse Armageddon). Thor has to travel around, finding the trapped gods and release them.
Perhaps something similar is going on here. Maybe when Odin banishes Thor to live as a mortal on earth something similar happens to the other gods?
Anyway, I'm at least hoping there's some kind of explanation for why a Norse god is black.

[Jack Ingoldsby]

I like Idris Elba a lot, but I don't think the casting makes much sense, merely because he doesn't look like a Viking guardian god.
I doubt it is affirmative action, just a desire to do some quirky casting.
That said, we have to see how it scripted. It may be great.

[John]

What about all the white kids playing Asians in Airbender? Even though I am black I was kind of "wha huh". But Helmdall not Thor. Kenneth Branagh typed against race with Denzel in Much Ado About Nothing so same thing here.

[Tom Strong]

Helloooooo? There were no ancient African-Norwegians! This casting is biologically and historically IMPOSSIBLE.

[Coolerking]

That brotha is gonna freeze his ass off up there.

[Brett]

I'm sure Marvel has a method to their madness and Idris Elba is a good actor. He's also going to be in Losers which is based on a high-action comic book from Vertigo.

[Joel Rashcovsky]

How racist can you guys be? Wow!
How about all those movies about Jesus Christ?? If the guy was an Israeli, then he had to have had dark skin. Why are all the actors in those movies white? Talk about "biologically and historically impossible."

[gary griffith]

what was kenneth thinking tycasting elba as heimdall.
this is the wrong way to cast someone for that role.
they should read the comics to see that not only heimdall protects the bridge,he has super hearing that helps him when trouble comes to asgard. if elba can convince the fans that this comic book character
is worth acting in the thor movie,then the fans can
praise him,if not,the fans are going to feel real
dissapointed.

[Lester Spence]

The biggest argument against it is that Heimdall was white in the comics.

But as for African Vikings?

http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/articles/african-roots-of-ireland/

[blaqbird]

it's sad that he has to be the "affirmative action" choice...have you not seen any of his other work? the man can act period. and why is it that all of a sudden everyone wants to keep with the continuity of the source material when there are so many examples of actors of one race/ethnicity portraying a character of another...

*21--the book was set around asian characters then all of sudden, there was an asian pushed to the background while kate bosworth and jim sturgess became the leads.

*the last airbender--read up on this if you don't know already...

*prince of persia--jake gyllenhaal is not Middle Eastern, sorry. Now it seems that the character is now British

*a mighty heart--angelina jolie as mariane pearl

*frida--ashley judd as a Mexican

And I'm not even going to go back to the Golden Age of Cinema because this list would be as long as all get out. I'm just saying that there seems to be no outrage (except w/minorities) when a white actor portrays a character that's historically another race, but when it's reversed, everybody wants to make a big stink out of it. Elba will be a great addition to an already awesome cast plus Kenneth Branaugh...this movie is destined to be awesome.

So how about we actually start looking at talent and stop dropping the "affirmative action" card at every turn. it's annoying and it just shows ignorance.

[MC]

Seriously, Elba has got the chops for real. Ask any "Wire" fan - Elba was Stringer Bell and certainly held his own among a SOLID ensemble cast. How he has not blown up by now is beyond me.

[LL]

Hah! I've never read a Thor comic book with any black characters, much less Asgardians. If they want to cast Elba or any or people of color, they can always bring in some supporting characters. How do they explain why Heimdall is black and everyone else is white? He was adopted!

[The Drizzle]

Isn't Heimdall supposed to be Sif's brother?

[Sid]

Heimdall(one of the Æsir (gods) in Norse mythology, called the "whitest of the gods"

-- maybe Kenneth Brannagh is going for _irony_ in the casting of Elba?

[gun_will_travel]

Well, he is a brother, anyway!