One of the unexpected highlights of the previous two Thor movies is Stellan Skarsgård’s scientist. As a pal to Jane Foster and the Norse god himself, Erik Selvig is both earnest and comical. He’s been controlled by Loki as a puppet in destroying Earth… and he’s lost his trousers at Stonehenge.

You can’t deny he’s a fantastic supporting character. But it looks as if he won’t be back for Thor’s third solo movie. “I have a five-film deal with them [Marvel], and they still have one option,” Skarsgård tells Den of Geek “Thor 3 is not on my slate but maybe the next Avengers.”

While it is dismaying to hear of Skargård’s absence from Thor: Ragnarok, it does makes sense based on what we know of the film that’s said to follow Thor and Hulk for an off-Earth ‘road movie’-style adventure. Think of them like a galactic Thelma and Louise charging around the universe. Hulk’s story arc, that spans Thor 3 and the final two Avengers movies, is said to be almost like a movie in itself. No wonder there’s little space for supporting characters.

As for the Avengers outings, Skarsgård played a large role in the first movie only to have his part in Age of Ultron chopped back considerably. Seeing as the Russos have confirmed that there’s going to be a huge amount of characters in the two-part Infinity War, it would be odd for Selvig to get sidelined for the occasion. Because the chance to watch him meet someone like Groot or Rocket would be the best.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 is due to arrive in UK cinemas on April 27, 2018 before opening in US theatres on May 4th, 2018.

Source: gamesradar.com