Thor: The Dark World Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, and Rene Russo. In "Thor: The Dark World", Thor teams up with Loki to save the Nine Realms from the Dark Elves led by the vengeful Malekith, who intends to plunge the universe into darkness. Development of "Thor: The Dark World" began in April 2011, when producer Kevin Feige announced plans for a sequel to follow the crossover film "The Avengers". In July 2011, Kenneth Branagh, the director of "Thor", withdrew from the project. Brian Kirk and Patty Jenkins were considered to direct the film before Taylor was hired in January 2012. The supporting cast filled
Thor (Marvel Comics) Lee and penciler and co-plotter Kirby that lasted until the by-then-retitled "Thor" #179 (Aug. 1970). Lee and Kirby included Thor in "The Avengers" #1 (Sept. 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series. The five-page featurette "Tales of Asgard" was added in "Journey into Mystery" #97 (Oct. 1963), followed by "The Mighty Thor" becoming the dominant cover logo with issue #104 (May 1964). The feature itself expanded to 18 pages in #105, which eliminated the remaining anthological story from each issue; it was reduced to 16 pages