Robert De Niro and Jude Law are Not in ‘Thor’

Published by Jeff Leins on: October 19th, 2009

I know it seems the past two days I have been debunking superhero rumors from Ain’t It Cool News, but that’s just how this business goes.  It’s nothing personal.  Sometimes an insider feeds you a scoop and other times it’s incomplete information.  Unfortunately for my Austin colleagues, this is another one that turned up false:

AICN heard through a game of Internet telephone and actor Matthias Schweighöfer that he was in the running for a role in Thor.  On top of that he would be joining Robert De Niro and Jude Law, who supposedly occupied unknown roles.  This was all translated second hand from the German version of GQ.

Both Law and De Niro have worked with Thor’s director, Kenneth Branagh, in previous projects and their addition would give a bit more star power to an otherwise weaker cast of unknowns (aside from Natalie Portman), so the evidence seemed to support the theory.

However, Geek Tyrant simply asked a few people at Marvel who flatly denied De Niro and Law’s involvement.  Furthermore, the website learned Branagh will start shooting in 8 to 10 weeks depending on how the holidays affect the production.

Update: Representation for both actors have denied their involvement in the comic book movie.

If you’re just joining us, here is a rundown of who is in the cast: Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster, the love interest), Stellan Skarsgård (unknown role, possibly Odin), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Jaimie Alexander (Sif), Colm Feore (unknown role), and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury).  Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee will also have his token cameo, though he doesn’t even know what it is yet.

Lee will play Larry King in a short appearance in Iron Man 2.

We should hopefully hear casting news on another Marvel solo project, The First Avenger: Captain America, very soon.  A script is complete and the casting process is underway.