‘It Really Kind of Pissed Me Off’

Chris Hemsworth has set the record straight on his “plans to retire,” or lack of them, following the discovery that he carries two copies of the APOE4 gene, which makes him potentially more likely to get Alzheimer’s in the future. Furthermore, he wants to make sure that, once and for all, everyone is aware that he has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s right now, and for that reason alone has no intentions of retiring from acting anytime soon.

While undergoing genetic testing as part of his docuseries Limitless for National Geographic, Hemsworth discovered that he carries the marker of risk associated with Alzheimer’s. At the same time, the actor planned to take a break from Hollywood, partially in the wake of the disappointment of audience reactions to Thor: Love and Thunder. The two stories then became intertwined and led to the misconception that the two were linked. As Hemsworth explained to Vanity Fair:

“It really kind of pissed me off because it felt like I had been vulnerable with something personal and shared this. No matter how much I said ‘This is not a death sentence,’ the story became that I have dementia, and I’m reconsidering life and retiring and so on.”

Thor: Love and Thunder

The sequel to Thor: Ragnarok and the fourth movie in the Thor saga. Directed by Taika Waitit. The cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, and Karen Gillan.

Release Date

July 8, 2022

Runtime

2hr 13min

Format

Theatrical

Studio

Marvel Studios

Franchise

Marvel

Despite being annoyed at the way he was unable to quash the rumors, Hemsworth did show that he was still able to find some humor in the moment, adding:

Chris Hemsworth Feels He Owes Fans a Better Thor Movie

Chris Hemsworth has several big movies already on the horizon, including the imminent release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, as the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers One, and talk of a threequel coming to his Extraction franchise. He recently discussed wanting to branch out and try roles that are different to his usual muscly action-hero roles, including attempting to get the lead in a new Kevin Costner movie but ultimately losing out to the man himself.

One character he is certainly not done with yet, though, is probably his biggest role – literally in many ways – of Thor. Hemsworth has spent more than a decade as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s God of Thunder, with mixed results. While there has been no doubt that his run as the character has been a huge success on the whole, his solo movies have always been huge critical successes (Thor: Ragnarok) or a complete failure (Thor: The Dark World). His latest, Thor: Love and Thunder, landed firmly in the latter category.

Hemsworth recently admitted to becoming “a parody” of himself in his latest Marvel outing, which saw the humor factor scaled up to a level that even the MCU’s jokey backbeat has never reached before. While the movie had a fearsome, if in many opinions underused, villain in Christian Bale’s Gore the God Butcher, most of the relatively short runtime was taken up with screaming goats, comical puns, and some moments that would have been much better suited to a sitcom than a summer blockbuster.

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However, Hemsworth is more than willing to put things right when he next appears as Thor, promising that he fully intends to take a “more serious” approach to the character for what is expected to be one of his last appearances in the role. While there has been no confirmation of when Thor 5 will materialize, there have already been several reports of work being underway to develop a more successful Thor movie in the coming years.