Q: Recently it's been announced that more of the Thor story will take place on Earth. Is it a contemporary earth or Viking times?
Feige: It'll be contemporary.
Q: How are you going to deal with the fish out of water aspect of it? Are you concerned at all about Thor dealing with the wacky modern day aspects of his life, being on a cell phone or something like that?
Feige: I am concerned about that and that's why we're not going to do that. We always think about, not in terms of “Thor,” but if you talk about fish out of water; if a character is goofy at any time he'll be goofy. If you bring in an idiot from the past he's going to come into the future and go [holding a recorder up to his face] “What is this? Hello?” That stuff is not funny and it's overdone. If Indiana Jones came to the future he's going to be cool. He's not going to be an idiot bumbling with things. There might be some fun humor out of him just getting something wrong for a minute, but he's going to play it cool and just not come off like an idiot. I think that Thor…if you look at [Jack] Kirby's Asgard, if you look at Walt Simonson's Asgard; they are technologically superior to us by far. They're not going to come and be flummoxed by much on Earth. There might be cultural differences that could be amusing or endearing, but he's not going to be talking to a lamppost for five minutes.
Q: Is Donald Blake going to be in the story and is he still going to be handicapped?
Feige: No.
Q: Will it still be recognizable as a what we understand to be a superhero movie or is it going to be closer to fantasy?
Feige: I think it's going to be very much a Marvel superhero movie, but I think to the movie audience it's going to expand that definition more and more. Again, we've got a forty four year old guy who's going to be a superhero in a movie and he puts on an armored suit. That didn't necessarily mean superhero to people. In that same way, I think, someone who's got superpowers coming to Earth and dealing with other character from his realm will come off very much as a big ass superhero movie. But it's going to expand that definition, I hope, in a way.
Q: Can you talk about the casting of Chris Hemsworth and what it was ultimately about this guy after looking at all these other actors?
Feige: You couldn't take your eyes off of him. When he did his auditioned he worked for it. He put himself on tape. He put himself on tape again and then did it again and then came in and sat with Branagh and then worked again with Branagh and then ultimately did a very late in the process screen test and there was no question. It was very much like going back to 1999 when Dougray Scott got injured on Mission Impossible 2 and we had to go back to the videotapes and suddenly we saw Hugh Jackman who came in and did a screen test and it was like, “There's no question that this is our guy.” In this case it was actually even cleaner with Chris because with Hugh he was like two feet taller than the character was supposed to be which was nerve racking, but Chris is six four and looks exactly Thor.
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Q: Can you address some of the Thor casting rumors: Brian Blessed as Odin and Natalie Portman as the love interest?
Feige: Well, there's truth that we think that Natalie would be great for the love interest. There's truth in that Ken has had a long relationship with Brian Blessed. In terms of those particular roles, not necessarily.
Q: What character is the love interest? Is it Jane Foster?
Feige: If you had to guess who the human love interest would be in a Thor movie that's what it'll be. But the only things that are official are Chris and Tom [Hiddleston] and Tom Hiddleston's another one who we were very impressed with. He's almost like a young Ian McKellen in terms of being a great, great actor who's very good looking. He did indeed do a screen test for Thor and blew us away with his acting. Ken had worked with him on a number of things and he's just got that great sense. He was good as Thor. We were like, “Well, he's a little skinny,” and in he two weeks he really bulked out. It was very impressive, but we were just like, “There's something a little off about him” - but in a great way, a very Loki way. I think our burden with Loki is that I want….I think that Magneto is the best super villain in our movies to date. I think he's one of the best super villains in comics. I think one of the best super villains in comics is Dr Doom. I don't necessarily think that you saw that in the movies, unfortunately, what makes Dr Doom a great super villain. So that leaves us [with] Loki. Justin Hammer, Ivan (Whiplash) who Mickey Rourke plays, Obadiah Stane; all of these of course are good. Tim Roth as Abomination I loved. But in terms of a super villain that can carry over multiple franchises and really still be your movie super villain that you love to hate, Loki is going to be our guy.
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