Before Chris Hemsworth made his big debut as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios was planning to introduce the character in the MCU in a very different way with an animated series!
That project was being developed by acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman, and he recently shared some details about the project on his blog. He revealed that the animated series would have been set prior to the events of the first movie, some story details, and why the project was ultimately scrapped.
“Long ago – around 2006 – I was asked to create a Thor animated cartoon, and I got all excited, and the brief was it had to be set before the Thor movie. I did a deep Thor dive, reread everything Jack Kirby drew, came up with a whole story shape that ran a few seasons showing young Loki going from hero-worshipping his big brother to Going to the Bad, and then they told me I wasn’t actually allowed to have any of the characters at any point be different in any way from how they were in the Thor movie, so I said no thank you and stopped.”
Obviously, after Gaiman dropped out, Marvel didn’t pursue the project any further. But now, nearly 20 years later, Marvel Studios has launched its own animation studio that’s developing all kinds of animated shows that are having fun with their characters.
Marvel Animation boss Brad Winderbaum previously said: “We’ve learned a lot. We produced a lot of content very quickly, and we’re primarily a filmmaking company. So, you can see that our first round of shows have a very movie-like structure: they arc-out the characters by the end; they feel like a standalone limited series.”
He added, “Moving forward, our content is going to feel a lot more like television. It kind of drives toward the horizon; drives towards the future, and keeps people engaged for longer periods of time, in the more leaned-back setting of your living room. To set it apart, frankly, from the big, cinematic event experiences in the movie theater.”
I would’ve loved to see a Thor series created by Gaiman! I think he would’ve given us something fun and unique. But, Marvel wouldn’t give him the creative freedom that he was looking for.
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