Chris Hemsworth Opens Up About His Brother Liam Almost Being Cast As Thor: It ‘Got Right Down To The Wire’

It’s hard to imagine anyone but Chris Hemsworth as God of Thunder, but the actor wasn’t even in the top five when Marvel Studios was looking to add Thor to its burgeoning Avengers team in the very early days of the MCU. In a new interview, the actor reveals that his brother, Liam Hemsworth, was extremely close to wielding the mythical Mjolnir hammer alongside Iron Man and Captain America. Because of that close call, the elder Hemsworth would love to square off against his younger sibling as a multiversal variant of his Marvel character.

“My little brother (Liam Hemsworth) almost got cast as Thor,” Hemsworth told MensXP. “He was one of the first people who got right down to the wire on getting the part so I don’t know I could cross paths with him. That will be fun.”

As for how Chris ended up getting the part, the actor told Wired‘s Autocomplete last month that his younger brother was a little too young, which opened the door for the older Hemsworth who had already read for the role. “I think my audition sucked,” Chris admitted, which is why he was surprised to get pulled back in after Liam just missed the cut. Via IndieWire:

“They were like, ‘Look, he’s great, but he’s a bit young.’ My manager then said, ‘Well, he does have an older brother,’ which was me. I came back in, re-auditioned a few times, and just had a different attitude. Maybe I had a little more sort of motivation that my little brother got a look in and I hadn’t. I also had done a couple of films in between those two auditions, so I had a bit more experience and confidence in what I was going to do.”

With that kind of backstory, obviously, these two brothers need to settle their sibling rivalry on the big screen. The universe practically demands it.

Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters.