Early on, Marvel Studios made no bones about refusing to add strong star power to “Thor,” preferring instead to use no-names to let the material shine on its own. While the movie will be carried by little-known Chris Hemsworth, producers have surrounded him with pretty able support from a very colorful cast. On the heels of the exciting additions of Townsend, Stevenson and Asano comes word that Idris Elba, soon to be seen in potential tentpole “The Losers,” will be joining the cast.
Elba will be playing Heimdall, who in the comics was a brother to Sif (Jaimie Alexander in the coming film). He’s essentially the toll cop for Asgard, protecting the realm from intruders until he’s forced into a leadership position once Thor comes to Earth and his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) enters what was called his (ahem) Odinsleep. Sadly, from the looks of it, if they stay close to the comics, Elba won’t be a big part of the action, mostly watching from on-high. Still, it’s cool to see one of the stars of “The Wire” in such a big position, especially a colorblind one, as he and Asano are playing fairly white characters. Those Marvel producers sure like their cable TV — they’ve employed the likes of FX stars Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon and Leslie Bibb, HBO vets Ray Stevenson, Dominic West and Elba, AMC’s John Slattery and even G4’s Olivia Munn. Ian McShane for Kang?
We are a little bummed that, unless Elba’s getting a huge paycheck, he’s still affordable for such a secondary role in this sort of movie. Not only is he so great on “The Wire,” but he’s starting to become a name to audiences, especially after “Obsessed” pulled in pretty preposterous numbers earlier this year. We won’t go on record saying that “Thor” won’t be any good, especially because this supporting cast is pretty cool, but Elba probably is better than this small-sounding role. In fact, it would have been more than cool to see him as Thor himself, which would be off-the-charts awesome. Then again, it’s not like he’s going to out-do the original Thor…