Man, Hollywood is taking a sledgehammer to its release-date calendar. Amid news of Steven Spielberg’s Robopocalypse being shift back nearly a year, and new dates for two anticipated sequels (X-Men: First Class and Rise of the Planet of the Apes), comes the announcement that Thor 2 will hit theaters one week earlier than anticipated. The sequel’s new release date is November 8, 2013.
The news was shared by Exhibitor Relations on the organization’s Twitter feed. As with the rest of these date-switch stories, no reason is given for the move, though it’s unlikely that Marvel movie fans will complain that they’ll get a second Thor story sooner than expected.
What do we know about Thor 2 so far? Obviously, Chris Hemsworth is back in the lead role of the Asgardian guardian, swinging his hammer for new director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones). The storyline is expected to develop the relationship between Thor and his half-brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who was recently seen causing all sorts of trouble in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. And Marvel President Kevin Feige has promised that we’ll see more of Thor’s home universe in the sequel (as well as the return of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster).
This shift in release dates means Thor 2 will now face off against Paramount’s animated Me and My Shadow as well as a concert film by the pop band One Direction. Now that Marvel has moved up, though, you can bet one of those will shift, perhaps moving back a week to a weekend like November 15, 2013 that currently has nothing opening.
