From Mjolnir to Multiverses: Unraveling the Thor Movies In Order

All MCU movies have an interconnected storyline. Their characters overlap and have appearances in different installments, too. Along with having solo movies for all the major characters, they also show up for team-up movies with all the rest of the Avengers. As such, each of these narratives makes more sense when watched in order of their release.

If you are asking what are the thor movies in order, the release date is the same as the chronological order. The first Thor movie established the character and the world he comes from. After that, he features in several solo as well as team movies. In every movie, the character appears in different scenarios and relationships, illustrating him in his different shades.

All The Thor Movies In Order

So how many Thor movies are there? The movies that Thor has appeared so far are:

1. ‘Thor’ (2011)
2. ‘The Avengers’ (2012)
3. ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)
4. ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (2015)
5. Team Thor 1 And 2 (2016-2017)
6. ‘Doctor Strange’ (2016)
7. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017)
8. Team Darryl (2018)
9. ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)
10. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
11. ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ (2022)

‘Thor’ (2011)

In this Kenneth Branagh-directed movie, Thor begins with an MCU origin story for the character. It shows the arrogant prince of Asgard, played by Chris Hemsworth, getting banished to Earth after almost starting a war with the Frost Giants.

Reaching Earth, Thor meets Jane played by Natalie Portman. He starts to learn the value of humility, which makes him worthy of his hammer against. He returns to Asgard to prevent his adopted brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from overthrowing Odin (Anthony Hopkins).

It is a pretty straightforward origin story presented by the MCU, but it is embedded in the memories of true Marvel fans. It has lots of humor and action, which really makes up for the otherwise linear plot.

‘The Avengers’ (2012)

In the second outing of the thor movies in order, our titular thunder god comes to Earth for the second time to put an end to Loki’s plans of summoning Thanos’ army, who wants control of the planet in pursuit of the tesseract. This time around, Loki is a much bigger threat than before.

He gets into a tussle with Captain America and Iron Man, played by Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., respectively. He goes full-out wrestling with Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), too, before he joins Earth’s mightiest heroes in the fight against enemies from other realms.

Essentially, Thor serves as a muscle for the Avengers, the film sets up quite a a dynamic for the rest of the team that has a long way to go in the next few films. He also shares a somewhat fractious relationship with the Hulk, which obviously resolves over the following movies.

‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)

After he puts a stop to the chaos that engulfs the Nine Realms, Thor is called back to Earth again to investigate a powerful Dark Elf weapon called the Aether. It is a strange red mist that manages to infect Jane, making her the target of Malekith. He is a despotic Dark Elf who wants the Aether for himself.

This leads to a battle in Greenwich, which leads to Loki’s death (not really). He declines the Throne of Asgard, and Odin gets banished to Earth. The movie is pretty messy and draws on, except for the part where the movie introduces one of the infinity stones. If you are watching the Thor film series to understand the plot line and how it leads up to the team-up movies, you cannot miss out on it.

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (2015)

After he declined the Throne of Asgard, Thor stayed busy with the Avengers, working on bringing down Hydra bases around the Earth. Destroying the final stronghold, Thor is about to return home when the evil mechanical menace Ultron attacks.

Although Thor has very little to do in the film other than hitting some robots out of his way with his hammer, he does help with adding the spark of creation to bring Ultron to life. He spends most of the film’s running time about the Infinity Stones. He also learns that Captain America might have a secret of his own about Mjolnir.

Team Thor 1 and 2 (2016-2017)

These short films, in the series of thor movies in order, have been created to help propel the idea of Thor transforming from being the Avengers’ heavy-hitter to a comic relief. They are directed by Taika Waititi and depict Thor’s whereabouts upto the Civil War. he basically spent his time in Australia leeching off his roommate, who clearly suffers in his company.

They are short and funny, inessential to Thor’s major cinematic journey. But you can watch them in case you want to know what goes on behind the scenes, and the Thor cast having a blast.

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017)

In this movie, out of all the Thor movies in order, Thor went from Viking warrior guy to Viking alien weirdo. His entire characterization is overhauled for the sake of the film. And it actually works. It redefines the character as a comic, a little buffoonish, yet ultimately a well-meaning hero.

The movie opens with Thor trying to stop Ragnarok, and it ends with Asgard being completely obliterated in his bid to kill his long-lost sister, Hela, the god of death. The storytelling is hilarious, irreverent, and yet exciting. It became such a blockbuster that most movies from the MCU get held upto its standard to be called a success. The movie made a high watermark.

In terms of major plot developments, Ragnarok destroys Mjolnir, Thor learns that his power comes from within, Asgard is destroyed, and Loki finally accepts that he belongs by his brother’s side. It is the best Thor movie to date and one of the MCU’s best.

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)

This movie picks up right after Rgnarok’s events. Thor is brought to his lowest when supervillain Thanos chokes Loki to death. Thanos’ children slaughter half the population of Asgard while looking for the Infinity stones. It is obviously not going well for Thor.

He is desperate for revenge, so he goes on to forge a new weapon with the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He is hell-bent on killing Thanos before he finds all the stones. Also, he has a lot more action in this movie than the others.

Thor succeeds in getting a new hammer, but he fails to attack Thanos the right way. This leads to the Mad Titan snapping his fingers and wiping out half of the life in the universe. Infinity War is perhaps the best comic book adaptation ever made, especially after Ragnarok. It makes about 5 wonderful hours of Thor-watching so far.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)

Five years after the Avengers’ failure to stop Thanos, Thor has lost all sense of being. He is depressed, he is overweight. He does not even have the motivation to try and gather the infinity stones, having given up. An encounter with his mother 9time travel) allows Thor to remember that he is still worthy, and it helps him regain his confidence.

During the climax, he helps Captain and Stark fight an alternate version of Thanos. After the battle, he gives up the throne of Asgard to Valkyrie. He sets off into space with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but it is short-lived, as seen in the following movies. If you are questioning what to watch before Thor Love and Thunder, this one is it.

‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ (2022)

In this series’ latest outing, Thor is seen hanging out with the Guardians. His physique is back to its previous glory. But a new villain, Gorr, goes around butchering the gods, and Odinson is ready to lock horns. He adopts Gorr’s daughter, Love, which brings the franchise full circle with Thor standing where Odin stood at the beginning of the series.

Thor gets reunited with a repaired Mjolnir. It is wielded by Jane, who is set to help the former

Prince of Asgard in his fight. The movie has divided its viewers vastly. Some have said that the comedic aspect of the character has been taken too far, some say it’s still the best thing they have watched. It really depends on the day we choose to watch it.

Characters And Their Actors

Here is a sneak peek into what the actors have said about playing the characters. We have talked about the central cast who started out in Thor and remained in the sequels.

Chris Hemsworth

Gaining 20 pounds for the role, Chris said, “It wasn’t until Thor that I started lifting weights, it was all pretty new to me. We just kept trying to humanize it all and keep it very real. Look into all the research about the comic books that we could, but also bring it back to ‘Who is this guy as a person, and what’s his relationship with people in the individual scenes?'” He continued. First, we looked at the comic books and the posturing, the way [Thor] moves and fights, and a lot of his power seems to be drawn up through the ground. We talked about boxers, you know, Mike Tyson, very low to the ground and big open chest and big shoulder swings and very sort of brutal but graceful at the same time, and then as we shot stuff things became easier.”

Natalie Portman

About playing the character she shared, I just thought it sounded like a weird idea because Kenneth Branagh’s directing it, so I was just like, ‘Kenneth Branagh doing Thor is super-weird, I’ve gotta do it.’ I signed on to do it before there was a script. And Ken, who’s amazing, who is so incredible, was like, ‘You can really help create this character’. I got to read all of these biographies of female scientists like Rosalind Franklin who actually discovered the DNA double helix but didn’t get the credit for it. The struggles they had and the way that they thought – I was like, ‘What a great opportunity, in a very big movie that is going to be seen by a lot of people, to have a woman as a scientist’. She’s a very serious scientist. Because in the comic she’s a nurse and now they made her an astrophysicist. Really, I know it sounds silly, but it is those little things that makes girls think it’s possible. It doesn’t give them a [role] model of ‘Oh, I just have to dress cute in movies'”.

She continued, “I signed on to do it before there was a script. And Ken, who’s amazing, who is so incredible, was like, ‘You can really help create this character.’ I got to read all of these biographies of female scientists like Rosalind Franklin who actually discovered the DNA double helix but didn’t get the credit for it. The struggles they had and the way that they thought – I was like, ‘What a great opportunity, in a very big movie that is going to be seen by a lot of people, to have a woman as a scientist’. She’s a very serious scientist. Because in the comic she’s a nurse and now they made her an astrophysicist. Really, I know it sounds silly, but it is those little things that makes girls think it’s possible. It doesn’t give them a [role] model of ‘Oh, I just have to dress cute in movies'”.

Tom Hiddleston

Staying on asterisk diet to have a lean and hungry look, he said of his part as Loki, “Interestingly enough, [Kenneth Branagh] said to look at Peter O’Toole in two specific films, The Lion in Winter and Lawrence of Arabia. What’s interesting about … his performance [as King Henry] is you see how damaged he is. There’s a rawness [to his performance]; it’s almost as if he’s living with a layer of skin peeled away. He’s grandiose and teary and, in a moment, by turns hilarious and then terrifying. What we wanted was that emotional volatility. It’s a different acting style, it’s not quite the same thing, but it’s fascinating to go back and watch an actor as great as O’Toole head for those great high hills”.

Stellan Skarsgård

He has remarked on his choice of the character, saying he “chose Thor because of [director] Kenneth Branagh. The script was nice and we got to rehearse and talk to the writers and do some collaborating in the process to make it fit us. So I had a very happy time on it. What I always try to do is immediately do something I just haven’t done so I get variation in my life. I’ve made about 90 films and if I did the same thing over and over again I would be bored by now. I try to pick different films, I go and do those big ones, and having done that I can usually afford to go and do some really small obscure films and experiment a little.”

Kat Dennings

Describing her character as Foster’s “little garden gnome,” she explained, “She’s kind of like a cute, clueless, little puppy or maybe a hamster. There wasn’t much on the page for the Darcy role to begin with and I didn’t even see a script before I took the job, so I didn’t really know who Darcy was at first. But she really evolved—she’s so much fun now even. She’s very Scooby-Doo if that makes sense. She’s always three steps behind and reacting to what’s happening with these great expressions … She gets things wrong and doesn’t care.” 

Idris Elba

About his involvement in the film, Elba says, “[Branagh] called me up personally and said, ‘I know this isn’t a big role, but I would really love to see you play it.’ It’s Kenneth Branagh. I was like, ‘Definitely'”. About the role, Elba remarked, “I did green screen for the first time! I wouldn’t like to do a whole movie of green screen, though. You kind of forget the plot a little—like being in a Broadway play and doing it over and over and forgetting your line halfway through”.

Rene Russo

She plays the wife of Odin, the mother of Thor, and the adoptive mother of Loki. On being asked about the sequels she will be a part of, she remarked, “Who knows how many I’ll do.”

Anthony Hopkins

Legendary actor Hopkins spoke of Odin, saying, “He’s a stern man. He’s a man with purpose. I play the god who banishes his son from the kingdom of Asgard because he screwed up. He’s a hot-headed, temperamental young man… probably a chip off of the old block but I decide he’s not really ready to rule the future kingdom, so I banish him. I’m harsh and my wife complains and I say, ‘That is why I’m king.’ He’s ruthless, take-it-or-leave-it. Women are much more forgiving; men are not so forgiving. I know in my life, my karma is, ‘If you don’t like it, tough, move on.’ And I move on. I’m a little like Odin myself”.

Wrapping Up

Now that we have covered all the thor movies in order, we can tip you on where to catch them. You will be able to watch these movies on Disney+ without interruptions. The short films are also available on YouTube. Although there is no confirmation of a possible Thor sequel in the near future, catching up on the past glory is a perfect idea.

Taika Waititi has however teased a new villain in a possible 5th film in ‘Marvel’s Thor 4: Love and Thunder Movie Special Book.’ If you are a fan, you need not lose hope just yet. If you have thoughts to share or questions to ask, please leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you!

Read Also:

• Behind Closed Curtains: A Deep Dive into the ‘Fifty Shades’ Film Trilogy
• Jesse Stone’s Legacy: A Cinematic Journey Through Crime and Character
• Stranger Things Characters: Age, Cast, Season, And Latest News