Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Stellan Skarsgård, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Jaimie Alexander, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Chris O’Dowd, with small roles from Benecio del Toro, and Chris Evans
Grade: B+

Chris Hemsworth is just as good as ever, but Tom Hiddleston steals the show. He saves it too.

Summary

Through narration from Odin (Hopkins), we hear of the time before the light, the time of the Dark Elves. A millennia ago, the most ruthless of their kind in Malekith (Eccleston) had the goal of transforming the universe into “eternal night”. This was possible through the power of the “Aether”, an ancient force of infinite destruction. King Bor (Tony Curran), Odin’s father, led the Asgard forces against the Dark Elves. To throw off King Bor, Malekith released the “Kursed” soldiers to deter him. As the Nine Worlds converged above them, this allowed for Malekith to finally unleash the Aether. He brought out this destructive element from between two massive floating rocks, but more of Bor’s forces stopped him and snatched the Aether before he could do anything with it. Without it, the Dark Elves fell. In his last attempt to save this failed mission, Malekith sacrificed his own people by sending down the ships they were in to crash land onto the battlefield as him and his righthand man Algrim (Akinnuoye-Agbaje) escaped into their own ship. As he left, he promised that this war is far from over. Asgard’s forces win but because the power of the Aether is too great to destroy, King Bor orders it to be buried deep, so no one will ever find it.

I’m sure that won’t come back to bite them on the ass…

We move forward to present day Asgard where Loki (Hiddleston) stands trial for the events that transpired in The Avengers. Standing in shackles, Loki isn’t in the mood, but his mother and Queen of Asgard in Frigga (Russo) begs him not to make this worse because she knows he’s going to try and piss everyone off. He stands before Odin for sentencing. Funnily enough, Loki doesn’t think his war crimes on Earth were a big deal, arguing he went to Midgard to “rule the people of Earth as a benevolent god”. According to Loki, this is just like Odin. Odin reminds him that they aren’t gods because they die, though they do live much longer as Loki points out. Regardless, Loki is sent to the dungeons for the rest of his life. The only reason he isn’t sentenced to death is because of Frigga. Before he’s sent away, he asks of Thor’s (Hemsworth) whereabouts, hoping Odin won’t make him king. He tells Loki that Thor is undoing the damage Loki caused, he’s bringing order to the Nine Realms, and will eventually take the throne. On Vanaheim, we see Thor, Sif (Alexander), and the Warriors Three in Volstagg (Stevenson), Fandral (Levi), and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) go to war on the battlefield. Once Thor takes on this giant rock monster and kills him with one shot from his enchanted hammer Mjolnir, the bad guys surrender. Peace is almost achieved across the Nine Realms and since Vanaheim is Hogun’s world, Thor suggests Hogun stay back and protect his people, with him happily accepting. Thor then calls for the gatekeeper Heimdall (Elba) to open the Bifröst Bridge to allow him and his team to come back to Asgard.

As we can see, the Bifröst has finally been rebuilt after the events of the first Thor‘s climax (when Thor broke it to stop Loki from destroying all of Jotunheim). Thor goes to talk with Odin, and they discuss how this is the first time all the realms have been at peace since the Bifröst was destroyed. Everything is in order, except Thor’s “confused and distracted heart”. Thor tries to downplay his feelings for astrophysicist Jane Foster (Portman), the woman he fell for in the first Thor, but Odin implies he should go after someone like Sif instead of some useless human like Jane. Even so, Thor is ready to become king, though he’s not as happy as he should be. They have a feast and celebration that night, but Thor is noticeably somber. Sif tries to cheer him up before he leaves and though he appreciates her, he still leaves the party early. In London, England, Jane is on a first date with Richard (O’Dowd) at some expensive restaurant, but she’s still very clearly hung up on Thor. Just as they finally start to break the ice following Jane’s initial awkwardness, Jane’s intern Darcy (Dennings) interrupts to show Jane a piece of her equipment is malfunctioning. She notes that what’s displayed looks like what their former colleague Erik Selvig (Skarsgård), who turned insane because of Loki possessing him in The Avengers, was rambling about. Jane sends Darcy away for disrupting the date but since she can’t get this information out of her head and it’s obvious, Richard lets her go. Jane and Darcy, accompanied by Darcy’s intern Ian (Jonathan Howard), track the readings from her equipment. On the way there, Jane calls Erik but to no avail. Unbeknownst to her, Erik is parading around naked while raving like a lunatic at Stonehenge.

Jane, Darcy, and Ian go to this abandoned building to find a group of kids. The kids show Jane this force of energy in place that is able to make this truck turn and float in the air by a slight push from one of the children. They go to one of the upper levels of the building and drop a bottle off of it. After a small drop, the bottle disappears into an invisible portal and reappears above them in a cycle. Jane tries it with a pop can she finds, but it disappears completely. One of the kid’s explains, sometimes things don’t come back. Just then, Jane realizes she hasn’t seen readings on her equipment like this since New Mexico, when they found Thor for the first time. Darcy, Ian, and the kids continuously throw things down the portal as Jane studies the readings. After Ian throws the car keys in the thing like a dumbass and it doesn’t reappear, Jane follows the beeping of her meter into a portal in another room. She appears in some unknown cave elsewhere and finds the two massive rocks that contain the Aether. She reaches inside and the Aether jumps onto her and into her body. She collapses right after. Somewhere in space on his ship, Malekith is awakened because of the Aether’s return. He notes “The Convergence” is happening once again. Back on Asgard, Thor discusses the Convergence with Heimdall where it is explained that it’s the one time where the Nine Realms are aligned together, and it’s coming up soon. The last time it happened was before Heimdall’s time (it happens every 5,000 years). It’s a beautiful sight but extremely dangerous. Thor asks how Jane is doing, and Heimdall gives her intellect credit because he sees she’s being studying the Convergence without knowing it. However, he just realizes he can’t see her at that very moment. Heimdall doesn’t know it, but the Aether has blocked his view of her.

Next, we cut to Jane being fully consumed by this unknown power until she wakes up back in the abandoned building. She goes outside to find that Darcy called the police because Jane was gone for five hours, something Jane didn’t even realize. It starts to rain but oddly enough, the two notice they aren’t being touched by it. There’s an invisible force field of sorts that is around Jane because of the Aether. Just then, Thor shows up back on Earth. Shocked, Jane goes over to him. She immediately slaps him though because she hasn’t seen him in two years, despite his promise of coming back to her. He also didn’t stop in to see her during the events of The Avengers. His excuse of the Bifröst being destroyed and having to save the Nine Realms is pretty good though because she didn’t know any of this. They are interrupted by Darcy who’s telling them they are about to be arrested. Jane talks to the police, but she’s told they are being arrested for trespassing. The guy goes to grab her arm, but the power of the Aether from Jane lays everyone out, including her. As Thor checks on her and the police start calling in backup, Thor takes Jane and they travel the Bifröst to Asgard, finally keeping his promise from the first film to show her the bridge. On Svartalfheim (“The Dark World”), we see Malekith make a promise to Algrim that he plans to get his revenge and put an end to this universe.

Back on Asgard, Jane is taken to the healing room where they realize they don’t know what’s inside of her. Thor is told by one of the doctors that Jane will not survive the amount of energy surging within her. They are all interrupted by a pissed off Odin who’s mad at the fact that Thor went completely against his father’s wishes by bringing Jane to Asgard. Thor knows they can help her, but Odin doesn’t give a fuck and says Earth’s doctors can deal with her. He tells his guards to send her back to Midgard. As soon as they touch her though, the Aether takes them out, and she’s weakened. Odin goes over to check on her and realizes it’s the Aether.

He takes Thor and Jane to a vault, telling them that there are relics that predate the universe itself and how the Nine Realms are not eternal. Back in the day, the Dark Elves ran everything unchallenged, and Malekith created a weapon out of the darkness called the Aether. It’s fluid and everchanging. It changes matter into dark matter, it seeks out host bodies, and draws strength from their life force. He then talks about how King Bor stopped Malekith like how we saw in the opening of the film. The thing is, Odin is still under the assumption that Bor killed all of the Dark Elves. Thor has to remind him they thought the Aether was destroyed too, but here we are. Odin seems a bit offended at Thor’s statement and leaves the room when admitting to Jane they have no idea on how to get the Aether out of her. On Malekith’s spaceship, he stabs Algrim (who is willing) to convert him into Kurse, a Kursed soldier that is almost unstoppable. Just then, Volstagg and Fandral show up on Asgard with some captured soldiers. One of them is Kurse. They are taken to the dungeons where we see Loki in his own cell conversing with Frigga who is there as a vision ghost. Loki is still mad at Odin and screams at Frigga about how Odin isn’t his father, so Frigga takes offense because this means she’s technically not his mother either. He realizes she’s sad, and you can tell it hurts him to see her like this since she’s the only that has seen past what he’s done. Even so, he doubles down on the comment, and she leaves.

Outside the palace, Thor and Jane speak of the Convergence and how during this time, the borders between worlds become blurred. Jane may have found one of these points unknowingly, and she was almost gone forever because the connection could have been lost if the alignment was off even slightly. Thor promises to find a way to save Jane, despite Odin’s thoughts on the matter. Right after, they are interrupted by Frigga who Jane awkwardly meets for the first time.

In the dungeons, Kurse incinerates everyone in his cell, destroys the opening of the cell, and kills the guards. He then lets every prisoner out, with the exception of Loki. The Asgardians are alerted of the prison riot, so Thor goes to help, assuming it has something to do with Loki.

In Thor’s defense, this is something Loki would do.

This leaves Frigga to protect Jane. Odin starts directing orders and downplays the seriousness of the situation to Frigga, who grabs a sword and tells Jane to follow. An invisible Dark Elf ship manages to get to Asgard, but Heimdall takes it out himself. Sadly, the mothership approaches right after and starts sending several other warships to attack. The Dark Elf invasion has begun, and they start destroying the place. Heimdall sets up the palace shields around the kingdom, but Kurse destroys it from the inside of the castle. This allows for the ships to continue their attack. In fact, one ship crashes directly into the palace and a load of Dark Elves come out and start busting ass. Out walks Malekith who immediately destroys the throne with one of his cool weapons. He finds Frigga and Jane, and Frigga gets into a sword fight with him. She has the upper hand until Kurse shows up and chokes her. Malekith goes over to Jane to get the Aether, but it’s a ruse. She’s an illusion that Frigga set up to throw him off. An angry Malekith demands to know the whereabouts of the Aether, but she refuses to tell him. Kurse kills her. Right after, Thor runs in and gives a good lighting shot to the face of Malekith, but him and Kurse are able to escape on their invisible ship before he could catch them. Odin and Jane come into the room to see the aftermath.

Following a funeral that saddens all of Asgard, one thing is for sure: It’s time to fight back. The universe depends on it.

My Thoughts:

Before Phase Four, Thor: The Dark World was considered to be the consensus worst movie coming out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I can’t disagree with this enough. It’s far from a perfect movie, but it’s a worthy sequel for the Thor franchise. The problem is that Marvel Studios was on fire for so long up until this point, this sequel stands out as the “worst” of the bunch by default. In this case, I understand the argument because the standard was so high but saying a statement as strong as “It’s the worst” implies that it’s a bad film. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

A big part of what Thor: The Dark World did right is realizing the franchise is at its best when Thor and Loki are together in some capacity. Here, we see Thor and Loki on the same side, despite their differences, and the movie flourishes because of it. Not only does it highlight the best parts of both characters and makes their personalities, as well as their complicated relationship as brothers at odds, shine brightly, but it also shows us the seriousness of the situation at hand. I’ll admit that the Dark Elves and their leader in Malekith may be among the most generic of villains coming out of the MCU, but the gravity of the situation was not lost on me or our heroes. The fact that Thor knows the only way he can save the universe is to release an imprisoned Loki who has betrayed him on numerous occasions (and will continue to do so), started an alien war on Earth that caused countless causalities (getting him a lifetime prison sentence for war crimes), and has caused his parents a lifetime worth of stress because of his actions, should tell us how serious this situation with the Dark Elves and the Convergence is. Listen, the only people watching this Thor sequel are serious fans fully entrenched in the MCU lore. Because of this, especially if we’re watching it in the timeline we’re supposed to, we know Loki being included in this mission for help is a major deal. I loved it. It showed Thor’s desperation and how there’s no other option to get to the Dark World without following Loki because he’s the only one who knows the passageways off the planet not involving the Bifröst.

It also added even more depth to the underrated villain in Loki, officially transitioning him into the role of the cool antihero, a role he would play for the rest of his time within the MCU. It was inevitable too. He was one of the best parts of 2011’s Thor, amongst the sea of positives in that movie. Making sure Loki was a part of this sequel when they could’ve easily casted him aside following his role as a villain in The Avengers, essentially ensured a positive entertainment factor for this sequel. He’s outstanding as the mischievous god. With Tom Hiddleston’s third turn as the character, we finally see how the far the character can go in terms of potential. Loki is the most fun he’s ever been. You can tell Hiddleston is reveling in his role as the chameleon-like joker who can’t be trusted by any of the good guys, even though they’re forced to. They feed him all the best lines too. You never get tired of him talking shit to Odin and Thor and messing with their serious demeanor. He knows he’ll forever be known as the bad son, and he’s well past caring about it. Him saying “I really don’t see what all the fuss is about” as he tries to defend his actions of starting a war on Earth was actually hilarious, as was his constant back-and-forth with Thor once he joins the mission, continuously messing around to his annoyance. Their chemistry truly is brother-like.

We do get a bit darker with the character as well. Frigga’s death is a huge factor in us understanding the seriousness of what’s going on, as well as getting an insight on what truly matters to Loki. Everyone is affected, including the usually distant adopted son. We know how close he was with Frigga. She even visits him in his cell and is the only reason Odin didn’t give Loki the harsher punishment of death. It’s a tough moment when we see the news being broke to Loki inaudibly. We see in his expression that it hits him hard. No words are needed. Before this, the last time they spoke was when he told her off to make his point about Odin not being his father. It was to be his final goodbye to the only person in his life that didn’t cause him consistent grief. It makes everything hit that much harder. Hiddleston puts together a masterful performance in The Dark World and adds even more depth to the most underrated character the MCU has ever produced.

When Thor comes to get Loki in his cell and Loki tries to be argumentative right off the bat, Thor tells him to drop the illusions. He does and this is where we see how Frigga’s death hit him like a brick. The cell is destroyed, and he’s sitting on the ground and up against the wall. Despite how bad Loki is and how he acts as if he wants to be removed from this family, we know it’s a front. Her death took a major toll on him. With Loki already being a vengeful person, it doesn’t take much to convince him to join Thor on this mission to stop the Dark Elves. It’s also reminiscent of the ending of the first Thor. As I noted, when Loki is about to fly into the abyss in space after the Bifröst breaks, Odin and Thor try to save Loki, but he lets go himself. Despite everything he did, Thor still looked to help his brother. He always has this glimmer of hope that Loki will join him once again. The love is still there, and there are numerous instances in the first movie (and this one) where we know Loki still retains this love for his family too. It’s just buried a bit deeper. What’s cool is that in this sequel, we see how Loki can change once it’s time to get serious. You may not be able to trust him 99% of the time, but this battle is different. Malekith has made it personal. When it comes down to it, all of the in-fighting and quarrels between Thor, Loki, and Odin are secondary when Frigga is murdered. Everyone is thrown off their game, and it’s time to get real. Everything else that’s happened between them is secondary. Family supersedes everything.

Somewhere, Vin Diesel is smiling down at us.

Yes, they still argue throughout. There will always be some tension there because you never know how Loki will react to things. In addition, he will not change his general personality for anyone and can’t help but talk shit to Thor. There’s a great moment during their escape sequence when they get into a heated exchange because of Loki’s comments, and Thor tries to calm things down by saying how their mother wouldn’t want them to fight. Loki then hits us with another great quote of, “Well, she wouldn’t exactly be shocked”. It’s such a great line to break the tension that even Thor loosens up, and they both start to smile, with Thor saying he wishes he could trust Loki. As a viewer, we can see Thor’s side of this but considering what we’ve already observed and how well we know Loki once he experiences a death in the family, we know he’s dead serious when responding with, “Trust my rage”.

The struggle of power between Thor and Odin is intriguing as well. Here, Thor seems to be doing everything right. Everything he’s learned since Thor and The Avengers shows us how complete he’s become as a leader and protecter. He’s made his father proud. However, with Frigga dying and the Dark Elves seemingly having the upper hand, everything is thrown out the window. Odin is shaken with anger and frustration more than ever before. It begins with Jane being on Asgard and his annoyance with her being very unwarranted, but it’s like he’s reverted into having a lesser thought process once his wife dies. It affects him in a very different way because his rage consumes him. He denies Thor his plan and tells him they’ll wait until the Dark Elves head back to Asgard. He doesn’t care if it takes every Asgardian to die in battle to defeat Malekith. Thor asks what makes Odin different from Malekith in this hypothetical and he hits him with the telling line of, “I will win“. It’s like Odin has officially lost it. This is a stark contrast of the wise and peaceful Odin in the first Thor. Now, threatened like never before, he responds with pure emotion and welcomes war. Can you see where Thor used to get it from? This is exactly how Thor felt with the Frost Giants and Jotunheim. He spent the whole movie on trying to figure out why he was wrong to go over there and pick a fight after being threatened. Fast forward to right now in this sequel and we can see that Thor and Odin have switched roles in terms of reactions.

Now, Thor has learned from Odin’s teachings and is thinking about his people’s lives as he should. At the same time, Odin, being threatened in a more serious manner than they were in the first movie, welcomes the prospect of battle. If he has to, it sounds like he’s willing to take all of Asgard down with him in his quest, despite being defenseless like never before.

If Hemidall can’t even see the enemy coming, us Thor fans know they need a different approach.

This is why it’s so weird for Odin to be this careless and rageful in his decision making. Does it show that for the first time in a while, he’s been challenged seriously, and he’s thrown off because of it? It’s hard to say, especially because I don’t understand his comment of Thor “overestimating” the power of the Dark Elves when they destroyed half his kingdom and killed his wife. Considering how he acted when faced with a threat like this and how well Thor reacted and came up with a plan to save all of Asgard, it shows the official “passing of the torch” moment needed for the character arc of Thor as he moves on to the next phase. Though the ending doesn’t officially make Thor king on his own accord, Thor: The Dark World is pivotal to Thor becoming the superhero that the universe needs. This movie and his war against the Dark Elves gives the character his crowning moment that makes him a “made man” in the eyes of the MCU.

Now, let’s take a look at the obvious problems regarding this underrated sequel. As I mentioned before, Malekith is definitely a bottom tier villain when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite how well they set the story up in showing us why we should be worried about the Convergence and Malekith’s role in it, the character didn’t live up to the hype of the buildup. They did all they could to make him seem like a serious threat. When he stopped Thor and Loki’s plan regarding them destroying the Aether on the Dark World, it was a great moment to show how powerful he is, but he still didn’t possess the staying power he should’ve had considering what he almost accomplished. Unfortunately, it’s because he hit every note on the generic sci-fi bad guy character we’ve seen before (Kurse was even more generic). The evil villain is an ugly looking alien, has this overtly low and strange voice, and has a complicated backstory that goes back many years to make his entire motivation revenge-based. The problem with the backstory is that it just isn’t that interesting. We’ve seen this before. You can save it if there’s a different type of spin on this revenge-based motivation, but there’s none to speak of. Malekith as the main bad guy doesn’t have enough of a personality to really latch onto and set himself apart from anyone either. I believed in the seriousness of the Convergence and how he can be unstoppable if he gets the Aether, but he just didn’t feel all that special.

A big part about this was the look of the film. The first Thor was shinier and felt more like a comic book. Thor: The Dark World was grimier and carried more of a dark (hence the name) and violent aesthetic that gave it a realistic Viking feel to it. However, considering how dark the material gets at times, it does make sense because Frigga’s death shows us the first real loss this family has taken. It needed to be a darker film, and the look needed to match it. It was a stylistic choice, and it definitely gave this sequel an identity, but it’s gloomy outlook didn’t help its staying power in the minds of audiences.

The subtitle of “The Dark World” is fairly generic as well.

Then again, Malekith would’ve looked like even more of a loser had he been featured in the style of a film similar to Thor or Thor: Ragnarok. He fit the vibe of what they were going for in this movie, but we needed more out of the character itself to really care. On top of that, the performance is just as generic as the character is written. It’s more of the basic bad guy plight of, “I want to turn the light into darkness! I want to rule the universe!”. Fine, but what else do you got? Why do you want this? Are you still harboring feelings towards the Asgardians in a war that happened thousands of years ago? Is there nothing else that interests you? I don’t know. It just wasn’t enough for me in that sense. If this was a TV show, this villain wouldn’t even be worthy of a season finale. It would be a two-part episode at best.

Hear me out on this one really quick…

I think there should’ve been more of a teased love triangle with Thor, Jane, and Lady Sif. They imply some interest earlier in the film, but Thor is completely uninterested because of his love for Jane. I totally understand this, but to be fair, he hasn’t seen Jane in two years. It’s safe to assume a closer bond with Sif is possible since they’ve fought together on countless missions since then to protect the Nine Realms. I also like the additional conflict of Odin even thinking Thor should consider her. Why not? Yes, there’s a chance this could’ve been too much for this movie to keep track of but if handled correctly, I think it could’ve added a lot of depth and character development for all three characters. His attempt to try with Sif could make Jane jealous, and she could consider something with Richard out of spite. This could’ve injected a lot of life and humor into the second act. Seeing Thor jealous is always funny because it’s so out of character for a god to care like that. It always works. This is why we see it played with in Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder.

You’re telling me you didn’t laugh when Thor asked, “So, who’s Richard?”.

That’s what I thought.

I’m not saying it could’ve taken this film to the next level, but it could’ve added something to the narrative. This is something that has crossed our minds since the first movie. There was always a clear sexual tension between Thor and Sif. How come they never expanded on this? It makes sense that in the heat of the moment, they could’ve kissed or something, and Thor could regret it because his devotion to Jane. It’s weird to me they would play with the potential of this openly in the first act, but never touch on the topic again for the rest of the series. Why give us the moment when Sif stares daggers into Jane when she walks with Frigga? You could cut the tension in that small scene with a knife! How come we never touch on Sif’s jealousy of Jane any further? I don’t get it, especially when we see that glance. It’s as if there were scenes deleted from the final production that made sense of it. Since nothing ever comes of this though, Jaimie Alexander is never given anything worth a shit to do for the rest of the series.

It’s also interesting to see this movie now that we’ve seen the Taiki Waititi directed sequels. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a certain hypothesis that if he hypothetically directed The Dark World, the Dark Elves would’ve been midgets. Tell me I’m wrong…

Actually, now that I say it out loud, this might have been a missed opportunity in general. That actually could’ve been hilarious and could’ve made Malekith one of Marvel’s best villains!

I loved “The Plan” sequence that gets Thor, Loki, and Jane to Svartalfheim. Everything during, before, and after it was exactly the type of fun that made the first film so enjoyable, more so in this case. Heimdall’s inclusion and Thor telling him his treasonous plans (“success will bring us exile and failure will mean our death”), and Thor’s friends all threatening Loki throughout the development of the plan was an absolute delight. It really added to the excitement of it all.

There is a lot of good coming out of Thor: The Dark World, though I understand the blame regarding the villain. This is what brings the movie down a couple of notches, but Loki by himself made up for the shortcomings of Malekith. His chemistry with Thor, the unpredictable twists involving him on the Dark World, and the redemption still managing to not change the heart of the character is what keeps this sequel strong. When you add in another great showing of Chris Hemsworth as the ultimate warrior hero, the romance between him and Jane being just as good as ever, and some solid humor from everyone involved to lighten things up when it’s needed, but at the same time contain a darker core to show the direction these characters need to go, I was still very impressed with how this sequel holds up. On top of that, the final fight between Thor and Malekith between the portals of nine different worlds was very creative and added a lot to the awesome action needed for the third act. I loved how Mjolnir was trying to find its way back to Thor’s hand as they flew between worlds. What a fun idea!

Thor: The Dark World is so much better than people give it credit for.

Chris Hemsworth continues to show us why he’s a star, and Thor, with his actions in this film and how it all ends, shows us why this god has finally reached the upper echelon of top tier superheroes (where the character should reside). Plus, we are once again set up perfectly going into Avengers: Age of Ultron and even more so to make sense of where we land in Thor: Ragnarok. At this point in time, the MCU’s plan throughout this overarching story between different movies becomes more and more impressive when you really look into the details.

Fun Fact: Mads Mikkelsen and Benedict Cumberbatch were both in talks to play Malekith. Thankfully, both men were saved to eventually work against each other in Doctor Strange. Josh Dallas was originally set to return as Fandral but had to bow out due to commitments to Once Upon a Time.