Briefing

17 Things You Didn't Know About The Making Of 'Thor: The Dark World'

Kirsten Acuna

Nov 8, 2013, 3:40 PM

Disney / MarvelJust how many extra hammers does Thor have lying around on set?

Thor may have one mighty hammer, but in reality actor Chris Hemsworth had tens on set to toss around.
With “Thor: The Dark World” out in theatres Friday, we’ve gone through the production notes for the film, pulling out a bunch of behind-the-scenes factoids for you to keep in mind while watching the God of Thunder on the big screen.

The sequel to Marvel’s 2011 flick follows Thor as he faces the forces of Malekith and his dark elves — but this time, he won’t be getting help from his Avengers crew.

Instead, he’ll rejoin his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Earth girlfriend Jane (Natalie Portman), and even his devilish brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to take them down.

What went into the making of the film?

Thor's mighty hammer is 10% bigger than it was in the first film.

The hammer's design is a combination of the one used in both 'Thor' and 'The Avengers.'

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

All together, nearly 30 hammers were made for the God of Thunder.

They all have different weights and uses. Five of them were regularly used on set.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

Wardrobe went through nearly 50 outfits to find the right look for Jane (Natalie Portman) in her date at the film's start.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

An estimated 1500 costumes were made for the sequel.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

Loki's prison wardrobe is meant to directly reflect his internal self hate.

'It's really exciting to see his prison outfit because there are two shapes to it. One is very polished and almost lush, as if he's wearing a very expensive dressing grown, and the other is when you see him at rock bottom and he has torn his clothes and his hair and his face,' says actor Tom Hiddleston. 'It's an incarnation of his own self-hate and his own despair. He's literally ripped at the fabric of his clothes and that was really exciting to do.'

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

The tree on the center of Heimdell's (Idris Elba) outfit stands for the tree of life.

In fact, his entire outfit is detailed down to the soles of his shoes.

'We went to a great deal of trouble to create his own particular shoes, so when you see it, it doesn't say Adidas or Nike on the bottom!' said costume designer Wendy Partridge.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

140 different styles of weapons were created for all of the warriors across different realms in the film.

A total 516 weapons were made since four extras of each weapon had to be made.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

It took prop master Barry Gibbs' team 10 weeks to make the weapons for the Marauders in the battle scenes.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

The crew had about 25 sets of armour and more than 30 capes to accommodate for Chris Hemsworth's change in muscle tone.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

Zachary Levi -- yep, that's him! -- was very adamant about dying his hair blonde for the film.

He wanted to stay true to the comic character, Fandral.

'I naturally have really dark brown hair and we weren't sure if we could dye it or if it would work and there was discussion about it possibly being a lighter brown and I said, 'no, no, no, no, he's blond, he's blond,'' said Levi. 'The only things I have ever wanted to say regarding input towards the character are to stay true to the characters as they are represented in the comic books.'

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

The costume department created all of their own fabrics for Asgard, Thor's home.

'The designs on almost all of the fabrics we have were developed within this Liten, Celtic style and then abstracted into the prints,' says costume designer Wendy Partridge. 'If you're looking at a dress that Rene Russo has, all those materials have been printed and then ombred and dyed to look like that. It's not something that you can go and buy.'

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

The streets of Asgard and Medina took 3-4 months to build and is the largest set built for any Marvel movie yet.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

Production designer Charles Wood and his team studied Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Chinese, and Islamic architecture to bring Thor's home of Asgard to life.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

This set for the coronation chamber took the production team 20 weeks to build.

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')

One of the most difficult scenes for the special effects team was the one below featuring a cement mixer suspended in mid-air. You probably spotted this in most trailers for the film.

'We had a cement mixer on a motion control rig which revolved and counter revolved in a drum,' says special effects supervisor Paul Corbould. 'It was quite a challenging rig to accomplish and to get right.'

('Thor: The Dark World' production notes')