Saturday Night Live is about to let Avengers: Age of Ultron actor Chris Hemsworth host for the very first time, and this week he stepped in front of the camera with SNL’s Kate McKinnon to practice wielding Mjölnir. You can check out McKinnon’s adorable fake Thor audition, below.
Before beginning her audition, McKinnon makes sure to point out that in the comic books Thor is now a woman. Marvel currently doesn’t have any plans to replace Chris Hemsworth with a badass Mjölnir-weilding female, but if Marvel ever does, McKinnon is ready to prove she has the goods. The “blonde and muscular” funnywoman bandies about a toy hammer on the screen, trying to impress us with her skills. Hilariously, at one point Hemsworth tries to show her how to upswing the weapon rather than downswing it, but she’s so into the acting experience that she ignores the Marvel actor.
Hemsworth is hosting this week’s SNL episode. It’ll be the first time hosting NBC’s late night sketch comedy series, and he’s doing so ahead of the premiere of In The Heart of the Sea. Regardless, people are already anticipating the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and I would guess there will be at least one Marvel joke in there once SNL actually hits the schedule this weekend. Especially now that McKinnon has already gotten in her own Marvel joke.
Thor isn’t the only film character McKinnon and Hemsworth have poked fun at this week. In fact, they also attempt the Dirty Dancing lift that made Baby and Johnny famous back in the eighties. Regardless, it becomes clear pretty quickly that Chris Hemsworth never saw the iconic romantic film.
SNL has had a pretty big 40th Season. In 2015, the show has already seen a slew of celebrities head to studio 8H, thanks to the star-studded SNL 40 special that aired last month. It’s hard to top a special featuring Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, Melissa McCarthy, Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon and many, many more. However, hopefully, Hemsworth will prove to be a more than adequate Saturday Night Live host. He won’t be taking the stage totally alone. The Zac Brown Band will also appear onstage with the actor during the March 7 episode.
Catch NBC’s SNL on Saturday nights at 11:30 p.m. ET.
