A new deleted scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron elaborates on the confusing side-quest of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor.
You know how you watched Avengers: Age of Ultron and thought, “That was really neat but a bit more shirtless Thor would have been a huge improvement?”
Well, then, you should really enjoy this recently released deleted scene from the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray edition featuring Chris Hemsworth and Stellan Skarsgard, which elaborates on what was really a bit of a rushed, incoherent moment in the movie:
In the clip, Thor sets up his plan to get the thing he needs, and proceeds to whip out a flask of what we assume is the nectar of the gods (…it’s booze, okay?) because, “The thing I need is scary.” Classic Joss Whedon joke right there.
The drink also magically removes his clothes, and Thor is now skinny-dipping in the water. He gets possessed by a Norse being named Norn, who reveals the answer to the Ultron dilemma: human sacrifice.
Related: Avengers: Age of Ultron gag reel officially released by Marvel
They go on to talk about the Infinity Stones, a part which was cut from the movie — and while it would certainly have confused casual audiences, we’re sure Marvel fans would have liked to see this MCU-mythology moment in the final cut of Ultron.
Speaking about the scene and his decision to cut it for the movie, Joss Whedon told Empire, “Chris got to do something different, and he really threw himself into it, and he did a beautiful job, but it wasn’t well regarded by the test audiences and I feel it’s probably largely because it was a rough cut with no effects, but also because it’s something that in a Thor movie would work brilliantly, but in this movie is just a little too left of centre.”
Really, the scene was mostly just intense naked Hemsworth writhing, which, hey, has its place. But since Thor later reveals everything he learned here to the rest of the Avengers, we see why Whedon/Marvel chose to leave the actual moment of revelation out of the cinematic version.