Joshua Dallas Replaces Townsend in ‘Thor’

Published by Jeff Leins on: January 10th, 2010

A day before shooting gets underway on Marvel’s Thor, Stuart Townsend exited the production due to “creative differences” and was replaced by Joshua Dallas, according to the Associated Press.

Townsend was set to play Fandral the Dashing, a friend to the titular Norse god and a member of the “Warriors Three” with Ray Stevenson and Tadanobu Asano.  The Stan Lee-created character is a master swordsman based on Errol Flynn.

The part is a smaller, supporting role in the comic book movie, so I can’t imagine where his creative differences came from.  A source for Ain’t It Cool News alleges Townsend was six hours late to a screen test, which might explain director Kenneth Branagh’s sudden frustration with the Irish actor.

He was originally set to play Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but was replaced last minute because he was “too young.”  Viggo Mortensen ultimately owned the part and became a major star in Hollywood as a result.

Dallas is a relatively unknown actor, but this could be a career catalyst for him before he appears in George Lucas’ Red Tails.  He’s joined in the cast by Stevenson, Asano, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Jamie Alexander (Sif), Colm Feore, and Stellan Skarsgard.

Thor is now scheduled for May 6, 2011 after the Spider-Man 4 delay moved this comic book movie forward two spaces.