Chris Hemsworth is THOR!!! Tom Hiddleston is LOKI!!!

[GreenScar]

EXCLUSIVE MONDAY UPDATE:I've learned that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Thor director Kenneth Branagh have cast their Loki, the nemesis to the lead in Thor set for release on May 20, 2011. He's Tom Hiddleston, unknown to American audiences but an award-winning British actor and Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts (RADA) graduate. He played Winston Churchill's son in HBO's The Gathering Storm, but, more to the point, note that Hiddleston starred in Ivanov opposite Sir Kenneth on the London stage and also starred with him in the BBC miniseries Wallander. Marvel Studios won't confirm my news, but Hiddleston had been considered as a possible Thor. See my previous, 'Thor': Unknowns? There had been a big Internet push to cast Josh Hartnett in the Loki role but instead Marvel went with an unknown. This follows my news of the weekend casting of 25-year-old Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth as Thor since Branagh was in town to finalize the principal cast. See my previous, EXCLUSIVE: Chris Hemsworth Is 'Thor'.

I hear the Marvel Studios press release about both castings is being written and should be released soon. Chris Hemsworth also a virtual unknown to American audiences, yet he was approved to play the lead role in Thor by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and the film's director Kenneth Branagh. Hemsworth can currently be seen as "George Kirk" in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot and also just snagged the lead in Red Dawn for United Artists last Thursday. (He's currently filming Joss Whedon's horror flick Cabin In The Woods for UA, and I heard the studio was so hot on him that's why it cast Hemsworth in the action pic.) The 25-year-old hunk played "Kim Hyde" on 171 episodes of Home and Away, the successful Oz TV series where Heath Ledger started. The way Chris Hemsworth got the part of Thor is one of those great Hollywood stories that happens only once in a blue moon. I have all the details here.

Chris Hemsworth has been cast as the title character in Kenneth Branagh’s big screen adaptation of Marvel’s Thor. Hemsworth will also be playing the mythic comic book character in the Summer 2012 superhero team-up film The Avengers.

You might be wondering, “Who the hell is Chris Hemsworth?” While you might not recognize his name, you saw him on the big screen last weekend in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek as George Kirk. Some of my critic friends had a big problem with Hemsworth’s performance in the opening sequence, but I did not.

Nikki Finke reports that Marvel and Branagh made the final decision earlier today after reviewing Hemsworth’s test footage, which was described as “Oh my god.” Chris is currently in production on the Joss Whedon-written Drew Goddard-directed horror film The Cabin in the Woods. The Australian actor was also just cast as the lead role in MGM’s Red Dawn remake last week.

He’s a virtual unknown in the United States, but he was a star on a successful television series back in Oz (171 episodes of Home and Away) and was on the 2006 Australian version of Dancing with the Stars.

Written by Mark Protosevich, the story has been described as being “like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story
of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god”.

Marvel will self-fiance the production, and the film will be distributed by Paramount Pictures. Marvel has announced a June 17th 2011 release date for the film.

I like it. He was more than good as Kirk's father in Star Trek.