If you haven’t seenThor: Ragnarok, stop reading now since there are major spoilers ahead.
Thor: Ragnarokis a movie that’s fun from start to finish, going unexpected places and making surprising gags throughout. Perhaps the most surprising joke involves a scene where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to Asgard to see a play reenacting Loki’s “death” scene fromThor: The Dark World. However, in the scene, Thor is being played byLuke Hemsworth, Odin is being played bySam Neill, and Loki is being played by none other thanMatt Damon. It’s an incredibly fun cameo and one that could only work in a film as delightfully madcap asTaika Waititi’s sequel.
During the film’s press day, Collider’s own Steve Weintraub spoke with producer and Marvel Studios headKevin Feigeabout what went into constructing the scene and landing the cameos:
“There was an idea in the script phase. I don’t remember if it was our writer, Eric Pearson’s or if it was Taika [Waititi]’s or if it was our executive producer, Brad Winderbaum to bring the audience up to speed on the fact that everybody thinks Loki is dead. So that when it was revealed that he was Odin, it would make some semblance of sense to people who weren’t following along from all the films. There was this idea to do it in this funny sort of stage play which Loki/Odin had put on to celebrate himself. We then watched whatever was the season before lastGame of Thrones. They did a similar thing where they had a stage play with some events from other episodes, not that we were like, “Oh crap.” But then it’s different enough.
There was a fun idea of “Let’s get Luke Hemsworth to play Thor,” Taika had worked with Sam Neill inHunt for the Wilderpeople. He was willing to come in and do Odin. So who could be Loki? Who could be Loki? Who could be Loki? We didn’t have any brilliant ideas. At one point, off handedly, Mr. Hemsworth goes, “Well what if I ask my friend Matt?” I said, “Matt who?” He said, “My friend, Matt Damon.” “Okay. Sure. Sure Chris, ask your friend Matt Damon. He’s not doing this. Oh he’s gonna do it. He’s flying down.” The next thing I know, Matt Damon is on set in a full Loki costume, full Loki wig. We have pictures that maybe we’ll share some day of Tom Hiddleston in a full Loki outfit standing next to Matt Damon in full Loki outfit. It is very surreal and very amazing. What a testament to, I just met him for the first time, I wasn’t there when he shot this. I just met him for the first time last night. What an awesome thing, for him to come down here for his friend. It was purely based on his friendship with Hemsworth that he came and did this."
But when you have a major actor like Matt Damon appear in a minor cameo, does that nix his chances of appearing in any other Marvel movie? For Feige, he doesn’t see why “Asgardian Actor” can’t be Damon’s role in the MCU:
“I think, as he said to me on the carpet last night, that look, there he is now a stock as Asgardian player somewhere wandering the universe with, spoiler, Asgard gone. Who knows? It could be the adventures of a hard-working actor, Asgardian actor, in the future.”
I would absolutely watch those movies where a struggling Asgardian actor keeps playing characters from the MCU to get what work he can. At the very least, it would be good fodder for some more Marvel One-Shots (and if Damon can be part ofJimmy Kimmel’s longest running gag, maybe some superhero short films aren’t out of the question).
Thor: Ragnarokis now in theaters. For more of ourThor: Ragnarokcoverage, click on the links below:
