Thor battles to save the 9 Realms in 'The Dark World'

MANILA, Philippines - From Marvel Studios comes the highly anticipated “Thor: The Dark World,” continuing the big screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that pre-dates the universe itself.

In the aftermath of Marvel’s “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

Based on the ever-popular comic book series, Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor with Academy Award® winner Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, award-winning Stellan Skarsgård as Selvig, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Christopher Eccleston as Malekith, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Algrim, Kat Dennings as Darcy, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Zachary Levi as Fandral, Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, Jaimie Alexander as Sif with Rene Russo as Frigga and Academy Award® winner Anthony Hopkins as Odin.

Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” is directed by Alan Taylor from a story by Don Payne and Robert Rodat and a screenplay by Christopher L. Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and is produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a.

In 1962, the now-legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced “The Mighty Thor” to readers of Marvel Comics, unleashing a new era of action-adventure with their take on the hammer-wielding Norse god. Despite the Nordic-sounding names, the story was rooted in familiar, universal conflicts that have driven human drama since the beginning of time: a son impatient to prove his worth to his father; a lethally resentful brother; and a woman who helps a man see the world anew.

After the global cinematic success of Marvel’s “Thor,” the filmmakers reached once more into a rich archive of Norse mythology and comic book history for Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World.” The movie paints an adventure of the most epic and spectacular proportions. Again drawing on universal and familiar themes, the film pits duty and family allegiance against personal aspiration and love. It sees a nation in conflict with an enemy long thought to be dead, but who now threatens the very existence of the universe.

At the end of “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor’s adopted brother Loki is taken back to Asgard by Thor as a prisoner, after trying to take over the world. From this starting point, producer Kevin Feige, executive producer Craig Kyle, the screenwriters and a large team at Marvel sat down to look at where Thor’s story should go next. Screenwriter Christopher L. Yost explains, “We really wanted to look at how you could escalate the story personally for him and push things to the next level in terms of conflict.”

Director Alan Taylor, describing Thor’s journey, says, “In the first film, we saw Thor go from being an impetuous prince to taking his first steps towards maturing and growing up, and in our film that life story continues. He’s moving closer to actually claiming the kind of power that comes with Odin. He’s becoming not just a man, but potentially a king as well. In this story, as Thor matures and deepens, he has to give some things up and suffer.”

To create the conflict, the filmmakers give Thor a worthy adversary—the villainous Malekith. Introduced in June 1984 in issue #344 of Thor, Malekith is leader of the dark elves, who inhabit Svartalfheim, one of the Nine Realms. After waging war with the Nine Realms, and being defeated by Asgard, the dark elves were considered to be extinct. But Malekith put his planet and the surviving dark elves into hibernation for many thousands of years, until a calculated time when he was ready to avenge the universe and turn light once more into darkness. Malekith and the dark elves will prove to be formidable enemies with a violent and personal history with Asgard.

In creating “Thor: The Dark World,” Marvel filmmakers worked diligently to respect the film’s origins and the legions of comic book fans it spawned and worked carefully to endear and excite not only those fans but fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well.

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 30 in IMAX 3D, Digital 3D, 2D and regular theaters, “Thor: The Dark World” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.