Chris Hemsworth Shows Off How Jacked He Is For The New Thor Film

If you're going to play a superhero, you've got to put on the muscle. After all, those cars won't lift themselves, right? Thanks to decades of comic books, fans expect superheroes to have bulging muscles as they perform all those ludicrous feats of strength, and the majority of major superhero actors have made a point to get as ripped as they can before filming starts. The efforts of certain actors, of course, have stood out from the pack — most notably Hugh Jackman, whose Wolverine managed to get more and more shredded with every film. There's also Christian Bale, of course, who famously went from a 120 lb. frame in The Machinist to being Batman, in only six months.

Bale, by the way, is set to star in a currently unrevealed role (presumed to be the villain) in the upcoming Marvel Studios feature, Thor: Love and Thunder. And while there's not yet any word on whether Bale's character will require a similarly heroic bulking up effort, one thing's for sure: His costar, the God of Thunder himself, will give him a run for his money.

With Thor: Love and Thunder aiming to film in 2021, according to Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth recently took to Instagram to reveal that his Thor is, from the looks of it, going to be stronger than ever. 

Chris Hemsworth's Thor, to be clear, never looked like a weakling. However, if Hemsworth's new Instagram post (pictured above) is any indication, Thor has finally decided to prove, once and for, that Hulk is not the strongest Avenger. Humorous as ever, Hemsworth captioned his post by saying, "Cheat day today. Decided to treat myself to this extra large donut, gosh it's heavy @centrfit."

So far, the Hulk himself — AKA Mark Ruffalo — appears too intimidated to reply. However, the same can't be said for Thor's other notable heroic rival, Star-Lord, as actor Chris Pratt responded to Hemsworth's photo: "Hey bud. Just heard from my trainer and he needs you to stop working out because since we're gonna be in the same movie and everything he doesn't want me to stand next to you if you look like that so I'm gonna need you to put on 25 lbs real quick cool thanks."

One long-running question that Hemsworth's new physique does seem to answer, though, is that Love and Thunder will not be bringing back the controversial "Fat Thor" of Avengers: Endgame. There had previously been some debate about whether this plot element would return, with director Taika Waititi implying that he felt it was played out — during a Ragnarok watch party on Instagram, he stated, "I feel like that's done" — but given this new Instagram post, it just wouldn't make sense for Hemsworth to be working out so hard if he was just going to get covered up in prosthetics. As for Thor's long hair? Or whether the thunder god will once again be depicted crashing into a window? Time will tell.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently aiming for an early 2022 release date.