Thor's MCU timeline explained – including Team Thor!

From Digital Spy

Over the course of his on-screen adventures, Thor has had one the biggest character arcs of any of the MCU's heroes (or villains).

From going all Shakespearean on us at the start and wearing mother's drapes in a super team-up to meeting Mjölnir's match during the apocalyptic Ragnarok and getting a whole new weapon in Avengers: Infinity War, here's how to watch all the God of Thunder's outings in order.

Thor (2011)

Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) is an impetuous blowhard who acts before thinking when we first meet him, attacking the frost giants of Jotunheim against his father's wishes. In response, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) strips him of his powers and exiles him to Earth, where he meets astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings) and mentor Dr Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård).

Thor's brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds out he's actually the son of the frost giant king Laufer, so when Odin takes his "Odinsleep" powernap to recover his strength, Loki seizes Asgard's throne and sends the Destroyer to kill his 'brother'.

By offering himself as a sacrifice to save the Warriors Three, Thor becomes worthy to wield the hammer Mjölnir and defeats the Destroyer.

Back in Asgard, Loki kills his real father Laufey in a betrayal that makes it looks as if he's saving Odin's life. Loki plans to use the attack to justify destroying Jotunheim using the power of the bifröst bridge. Thor stops him by destroying the bridge, knowing he will be unable to return to Earth to see Jane.

Odin awakes in time to save his children but Loki seemingly falls to his death by choice. A much changed Thor admits to Odin that he is not yet ready to be king.

Avengers Assemble (2012)

The Avengers' numbers have swelled in recent times but Thor got in on the ground floor as one of its founding members. Given that the threat facing Earth comes from his brother Loki, he's where he needs to be: in exchange for handing over the powerful Tesseract, which contains an Infinity Stone, Loki gets his own Chitauri army to help him subjugate Earth.

When Loki surrenders to Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Thor appears and frees him, hoping to convince his brother to return home. After fighting Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Thor eventually agrees to take Loki to SHIELD's helicarrier but his brother's agents attack it and Thor is forced to engage the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to try and stop his rampage.

Loki escapes after killing agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and ejecting Thor from the helicarrier. Loki leads the attack on Earth but the Avengers rally to protect New York and he is defeated when the Hulk pummels the "puny God" into submission. Thor returns both Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Thor succeeds in his battle to pacify the Nine Realms following the reconstruction of the bifröst. It's great timing, as the Asgardians soon learn that a rare alignment of the Nine Realms known as the Convergence is imminent.

When Heimdall reveals that he can no longer see Jane Foster, Thor travels to find her and realises she has been infected with an otherworldly force called "the aether". This awakens the dark elf ruler Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston), who travels to Asgard to find the aether and kills Odin's wife Frigga (Rene Russo) when she won't reveal Jane's location.

Thor reluctantly enlists the help of Loki and promises him vengeance on Malekith for the death of their mother. They confront him on Svartalfheim and when Malekith draws the aether out of Foster, Thor tries to destroy it using the power of Mjölnir. The attempt fails, Loki is seemingly killed and Malekith makes his escape.

Thor heads to the centre of the Convergence in Greenwich and battles Malekith through various portals and across multiple worlds, until the dark elf is eventually transported to Svartalfheim and crushed by his own ship.

Thor returns to Asgard but declines Odin's offer to take the throne, telling his father of Loki's sacrifice. As he leaves, 'Odin' transforms and it is revealed that Loki is alive and is impersonating him.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Age of Ultron is the first MCU movie where Thor does not play off against his brother Loki. It opens with Thor aiding the other Avengers in a raid on a Hydra facility and the God of Thunder largely plays a supporting role in their following actions, as Banner and Stark try to create an AI protector using the intelligence found in Loki's staff.

Thor's main contribution is to find out if there is any truth to the apocalyptic future he was shown by Scarlet Witch. The knowledge he gains during this dangerous procedure convinces him to activate the body Ultron has created. He explains that he had seen the gem on its brow (one of the six Infinity Stones, the most powerful objects in existence) in this vision. His actions are justified when Vision, named after Thor's supernatural insight, lifts the God of Thunder's hammer and proves himself worthy.

When Ultron threatens to raise the land mass of Sokovia and smash it into the Earth, killing all human life, Thor and the other Avengers head there to stop him. Thor fights the robotic army to stop them triggering the descent but when one of Ultron's drones gets through, he works with Stark to overload the machine and shatter the landmass.

At the end of the film, Thor returns to Asgard to learn more about the forces he suspects have manipulated recent events.

Team Thor (2016)

If you wondered what Thor was up to during the events of Captain America: Civil War, as two factions within the Avengers battled it out, this short humorously answers that question. While Team Cap and Team Iron Man were getting their fight on, Thor took a short break in Australia and moved into a flat share.

Shot by Taika Waititi in a mockumentary style similar to his film What We Do in the Shadows, Team Thor introduced us to the character of Darryl Jacobson (Daley Pearson) and saw Thor's attempts to land a place in either team scuppered by his lack of a mobile phone and his inability to have Darryl craft an email to Stark.

Team Thor: Part 2 (2017)

Thor and Darryl returned in a second helping of second helping of Team Thor, which appeared as an extra on the Doctor Strange Blu-ray. "I'm a prince from another world and I'm used to giant, shiny, golden castles so this is kind of ridiculous in a lot of ways but I'm managing," Thor says, as it's revealed he's not the greatest at paying the rent or the bills. (That's an issue when you can't focus on fortnightly issues because you deal in centuries.)

Doctor Strange (2016)

In an end credit scene, Thor sits in the New York Sanctum talking with Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). When Thor says he doesn't drink tea, the Sorcerer Supreme gives him a stein of beer that never runs dry.

Strange says he's been keeping tabs on beings that might be a threat to Earth and Loki is one of those. Thor reveals that the pair are looking for Odin and Strange says if it will aid them in getting back to Asgard quicker, he'll help them.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Imprisoned by Surtur in Muspelheim, Thor listens as the fire demon explains how Ragnarök will be achieved when his crown is dipped into the Eternal Flame that burns in Odin's vault. Having freed himself, Thor defeats Surtur, takes his crown and believes he has prevented Ragnarök.

In a repeat of the end credit scene from Doctor Strange, Thor and Loki eventually locate Odin, only for their father to die of old age. His passing frees their sister Hela (Kate Blanchett), who destroys Thor's hammer Mjölnir. Heimdall's attempted retrieval brings Hela to Asgard and sends Thor and Loki to the trash planet Sakaar.

As Hela takes control of Asgard, with some resistance by Heimdall, Thor and Loki butt heads with the ruler of Sakaar, the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Thor has to fight his "friend from work" and after the battle tries to convince the Hulk to give up his role as the champion of the arena and join himself, Loki, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) – the Revengers – on an escape mission to save Asgard from Hela.

Having escaped the planet and returned home, Thor realises that the only way to defeat his sister is to trigger Ragnarök and have Surtur destroy her. The remaining Asgardians watch as they are airlifted off the planet and their kingdom is destroyed.

Team Darryl (2018)

Jeff Goldblum reprised his role as the Grandmaster and moved in with Thor's former flatmate in Team Darryl. It turns out that the ruler of Sakaar, now deposed despite an end credits scene where he almost talks his way back into power, was the only person to respond to Darryl's Craigslist ad.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

"You know I'm fifteen hundred years old. I've killed twice as many enemies as that, and every one of them would have rather kill me, but none succeeded. I'm only alive because fate wants me alive. Thanos is just the latest of a long line of bastards, and he'll be the latest to feel my vengeance. Fate wills it so..."

Avengers: Infinity War saw the God of Thunder suffer further major losses following the destruction that occurred at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. With Loki and Heimdall both killed by Thanos almost immediately, Thor sends out a distress call and is rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thor realises that Thanos will head to Knowhere next to take the Reality Stone from the Collector. As the rest of the Guardians head there, he travels with Rocket and Groot to Nidavellir, where they help master blacksmith Eitri create a battle-axe called Stormbreaker, which is capable of killing Thanos.

Having completed the weapon, with the help of a handle made from Groot's wood, Thor, Rocket and Groot arrive at the battle of Wakanda to reinforce the Avengers. Although Thor severely wounds Thanos he doesn't deliver a killing blow. "You should have aimed for the head," Thanos says before he snaps his fingers and wipes out half the universe with the completed Infinity Gauntlet.

Daley Pearson Twitter post (2018)

Good news! Darryl survived the 'snap'. Unfortunately, a lot of his co-workers didn't so he's now working weekends. He's also in "quite a lot of debt", which is hardly surprising given how terrible his last two flatmates were. Still, he wishes Thor a happy birthday and plays him a personal rendition of that song on a 1970s Stylophone.

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