Head writer and executive producer of What If...? A.C. Bradley made it a point to say on Twitter that the upcoming episode will be "slightly less tragic" than the one starring Doctor Strange.
It was aloe recently revealed that in this episode of What If...?, the question asked is "What If... Thor Was an Only Child?"
A new clip shows Chris Hemsworth as Thor throwing an enormous, intergalactic party on Earth. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster even tracked him down to ask him questions, much like she did in the original Thor.
Being an only child seems to have made Thor even more egotistical and brass, which the director discussed in an interview.
Chris Hemsworth Brought Ragnarok Performance Into "Party Thor"
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Bryan Andrews talked about the upcoming episode of What If...? starring Chris Hemsworth's Thor being raised as an only child.
Andrews explained that due to this change in Thor's upbringing, "We get to reinvent him because his entire life from the beginning to this point is totally different so we got to create a brand new version of Thor, truly."
This variation of Thor will be far more comedic than he's ever been, even being compared to his appearance in Thor: Ragnarok:
"We push that comedy. It does take place in the timeframe roughly of what we think of as Thor so there are some other characters that we do get to see from that movie — Jane Foster makes an appearance as well as Darcy and Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings did such a fantastic job."
Chris Hemsworth returns to voice the God of Thunder, who seemed to have an ecstatic time in the recording booth. According to Andrews, "he ate it up," and that when "finding the voice" for this new Thor, they leaned into Hemsworth's "comic instincts" first brought into Ragnarok:
"We started finding the voice and Chris has got such natural comic instincts — they've started bringing that out in Ragnarok but we got to lean into that even more so in this. There's some stuff that got particularly goofy and he was laughing and the guys in the recording booth over there in Australia were laughing, and he was just like, 'I really like this Thor!' He gets to cut loose more than he ever has in the Marvel Universe."
Andrews added that he feels like Hemsworth brought in "a little bit of actual Chris" when playing "Party Thor:"
"I get a sense that maybe there's a little bit of actual Chris in 'Party Thor' which might be one reason why he gravitated towards it so easily and had so much fun with it."
A Light-Hearted Apocalypse in the MCU?
It's apparent that this episode will lean heavily into the comedic performance of Chris Hemsworth as Party Thor, who seems to have grown up pampered by his father, Odin. No longer given an opportunity to be humbled, Thor seems to have an even more carefree attitude than he had in the original Thor and even Ragnarok.
It is also great to see that Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings will return and continue to bounce off Hemsworth. It could even be a preview of what the chemistry will be like between Hemsworth and Portman in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Fans will get to see how much Hemsworth hams it up when this upcoming episode of What If...? airs on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.
