Chris Hemsworth Says He Grew to Feel 'Pretty Replaceable' Playing Thor: Costars Had 'Way Cooler Stuff'

Chris Hemsworth is voicing some hesitations he holds from playing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Hemsworth, 40, told Vanity Fair in a new feature story published April 30 that he at times felt his character was valued less than his Avengers costars across the eight movies he played Thor in between 2011 and 2022.

“Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team,” Hemsworth told the outlet. “I would read everyone else’s lines, and go, Oh, they got way cooler stuff. They’re having more fun."

"What’s my character doing? It was always about, ‘You’ve got the wig on. You’ve got the muscles. You’ve got the costume. Where’s the lighting?’ " he added. "Yeah, I’m part of this big thing, but I’m probably pretty replaceable.”

Hemsworth was 25 when he was first cast as Thor for the 2011 movie of the same name. Fast-forward 15 years later, and the actor has outlasted his Avengers costars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson in Marvel's superhero franchise, having most recently starred in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder.

Despite remaining with the franchise, the outlet noted multiple times that Hemsworth is dissatisfied with his most recent solo Thor movie, which brought back filmmaker Taika Waititi after the success of 2017's Ragnarok. “I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself,” he told Vanity Fair. “I didn’t stick the landing.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Downey Jr., 59, dismissed the notion that Hemsworth's Thor was lesser-than the other major Avengers characters while speaking with the outlet. “First off, Thor as a character was super tricky to adapt—lots of implied limitations—but he and [Thor director Kenneth Branagh] figured out how to transcend, make him somehow relatable but godlike,” he said. “Hemsworth is, in my opinion, the most complex psyche out of all us Avengers. He’s got wit and gravitas, but also such restraint, fire and gentleness.”

Hemsworth's next movie, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, sees him take on a villain role opposite Anya Taylor-Joy in a prequel to 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. As Vanity Fair reported, the actor is weighing his career options after that — including that "he thinks he owes the audience another Thor" following Love and Thunder.

"The one side of my brain tells me, Oh, you took too much time off and now the train’s passed you by,” he said. “The more rational mind is like, You’ve turned down a lot of stuff too—big action films where there wasn’t a solid script.”