The ‘Men in Black: International’ producers initially didn’t want to cast Tessa Thompson alongside Chris Hemsworth after they acted opposite each other in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’.
Walter Parkes and Laurie Macdonald revealed that it was looked upon as a "potential negative" that Tessa, 35, and Chris, 35, had starred as alongside each other as Thor and Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie as they didn’t want it to seem like they had "no imagination"
However, the producers insisted they made the correct decision in casting the Chris and Tessa as agent H and agent M respectively as audiences are "embracing" the idea of the actors as a "duo".
In an interview with Collider, Parkes said: "It was looked upon as a potential negative".
Macdonald added: "For us it was, ‘is it a potential negative?’ But we felt that…"
Prompting Parkes to interject: "But on the other hand there was proof of concept. We saw that she, and this is the most important thing, you have Chris Hemsworth, that looks like Chris Hemsworth and has Chris Hemsworth confidence and charm and size, everything. Who can stand up to him? Who can absolutely hold their own? In a way that isn’t even competitive but is just like elemental forces. Not that many people, and we did see evidence of that. It’s not why we cast her, in fact we had certain trepidations about how we proceed."
Macdonald said: "We didn’t want to look like, do we have no imagination?"
Parkes replied: "But, as it turns out, it was the right casting and, in fact, people are embracing the idea that it’s that duo back together again."
The sci-fi blockbuster is a spin-off of the main ‘Men In Black’ series which starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as two agents working for a secret government agency working to police aliens living on Earth and protecting the planet from extra-terrestrial threats.
Hemsworth and Thompson star are joined in the movie by all-star cast which includes Kumail Nanjiani, Liam Neeson, Rafe Spall, Emma Thompson and Rebecca Ferguson.
Producers had Men in Black: International casting doubts
