Mar­vel stu­dios have released another image of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, this time pulling out his ham­mer Mjol­ner from a block of rock. This image first appeared in USA Today.

New posters have been released as part of SDCC, click for larger versions.

The Thor images are pour­ing in now, and from the LA Times we get our first glimpse of the Hall of Asgard, with Fan­dral, Hogun, Frigga and hel­mets. In detail, you can see a kneel­ing Thor (Hemsworth), then also Fan­dral the Dash­ing (Josh Dal­las), Hogun the Grim (Tadanobu Asano) and Frigga (Rene Russo); you can also see Odin (Anthony Hop­kins) and Loki (Tom Hid­dle­ston) with their cer­e­mo­nial helmets.

This comes via the SHH forums.

The Gods of Thor have been revealed via the LATimes, in a report that con­firms the film will be released in 3D (although it wasn’t shot in 3D). Along­side Hop­kins are Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hid­dle­ston as Loki.

Ed Nor­ton will not be play­ing Bruce Ban­ner in the upcom­ing Avengers movie. He would have joined Robert Downey Jr., Scar­lett Johans­son, Samuel L. Jack­son as Nick Fury, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Cap­tain America.

Kevin Feige reports,

“We have made the deci­sion to not bring Ed Nor­ton back to por­tray the title role of Bruce Ban­ner in the Avengers. Our deci­sion is def­i­nitely not one based on mon­e­tary fac­tors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embod­ies the cre­ativ­ity and col­lab­o­ra­tive spirit of our other tal­ented cast mem­bers. The Avengers demands play­ers who thrive work­ing as part of an ensem­ble, as evi­denced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scar­lett, and all of our tal­ented casts. We are look­ing to announce a name actor who ful­fills these require­ments, and is pas­sion­ate about the iconic role in the com­ing weeks.”

This state­ment resulted in a kick-back from Norton’s agents and Nor­ton himself:

This offen­sive state­ment from Kevin Feige at Mar­vel is a pur­pose­fully mis­lead­ing, inap­pro­pri­ate attempt to paint our client in a neg­a­tive light. Here are the facts: two months ago, Kevin called me and said he wanted Edward to reprise the role of Bruce Ban­ner in The Avengers. He told me it would be his fan­tasy to bring Edward on stage with the rest of the cast at Comi­Con and make it the event of the con­ven­tion. When I said that Edward was def­i­nitely open to this idea, Kevin was very excited and we agreed that Edward should meet with Joss Whe­don to dis­cuss the project. Edward and Joss had a very good meet­ing (con­firmed by Feige to me) at which Edward said he was enthu­si­as­tic at the prospect of being a part of the ensem­ble cast. Mar­vel sub­se­quently made him a finan­cial offer to be in the film and both sides started nego­ti­at­ing in good faith. This past Wednes­day, after sev­eral weeks of civil, uncon­tentious dis­cus­sions, but before we had come to terms on a deal, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Mar­vel called to say they had decided to go in another direc­tion with the part. This seemed to us to be a finan­cial deci­sion but, what­ever the case, it is com­pletely their pre­rog­a­tive, and we accepted their deci­sion with no hard feelings.

We know a lot of fans have voiced their pub­lic dis­ap­point­ment with this result, but this is no excuse for Feige’s mean spir­ited, accusatory com­ments. Counter to what Kevin implies here, Edward was look­ing for­ward to the oppor­tu­nity to work with Joss and the other actors in the Avengers cast, many of whom are per­sonal friends of his. Feige’s state­ment is unpro­fes­sional, disin­gen­u­ous and clearly defam­a­tory. Mr. Nor­ton tal­ent, tire­less work ethic and pro­fes­sional integrity deserve more respect, and so do Marvel’s fans.

The most inter­est­ing aspect of Day 5’s film­ing was the photo of an autobot’s head, a grey haired char­ac­ter sport­ing spec­ta­cles and stand­ing next to Bum­ble­bee. These cards are used to aid the actors with line of sight, etc. Who is this new auto­bot? What is his alt mode? The head of Sound­wave was also spot­ted (Pix­el­Rally got the shot), con­firm­ing his role in the movie.

The day also fea­tured a base jump from Trump Tower and scenes below, much of which has been cap­tured on film. Then of course there are explo­sions, wouldn’t be a Bay film with­out them. Cars flip­ping, Bum­ble­bee skid­ding around, para­chuters fly­ing in. The video playlist below has over 15 videos from the day’s shoot:

Film­ing con­tin­ued on Sat­ur­day, and the ’72 Dat­sun sport­ing Bum­ble­bee colour­ing was spot­ted along­side Shia and Rosie in Chicago, prob­a­bly con­tin­u­ing from the scene in Mil­wau­kee. The auto­bots were also out in full col­ors and a truck sport­ing the word “NEST” has shown up, spark­ing rumors that it’s a mobile HQ unit.

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