Chris Hemsworth Is Shirtless and Wet in Deleted Norn Cave Scene From The Avengers: Age of Ultron—Watch the Clip!

"Chris gets to do something exciting as an actor and he's got his f--king shirt off, so everybody wins!" director Joss Whedon says of the excised moment

By Zach Johnson Sep 28, 2015 12:50 PMTags

Bow down to the crown prince of Asgard.

Over the weekend, Marvel Studios released a two-minute deleted scene from The Avengers: Age of Ultron, out now on 3D Digital and Digital HD and on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital SD and VOD Oct. 2. The clip shows Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) trying to find a way to defeat their new adversary, Ultron (James Spader). After taking swig of liquid courage, removing his shirt and jumping into the water, Thor becomes possessed and offers backstory on the Infinity Stones.

Four months ago, director Joss Whedon explained why the scene was trimmed.

"There was a 195-minute cut of this movie. The original scene was that Thor went to speak to the Norn and how it would work was that he'd go in the pool and the Norn possess him, basically, and Erik Selvig asks all the questions, and the Norn, speaking through Thor, give the answers," he said during an Empire Film Podcast in May, when the movie was released in theaters. "So, Chris got to do something different, and he really threw himself into it, and he did a beautiful job, but it wasn't well regarded by the test audiences and I feel it's probably largely because it was a rough cut with no effects, but also because it's something that in a Thor movie would work brilliantly, but in this movie is just a little too left of center."

"Thor is the hardest guy to integrate. Originally it was Thor looking through library books; I really didn't have anything visceral. Then I came up with what I felt was a huge win: it's about Thor getting answers without having to answer the questions, and Chris gets to do something exciting as an actor and he's got his f--king shirt off, so everybody wins! It's amazing how many people had to be on set that day. I do feel like they threw out the baby with the pond water, because I tried to set it up so people would accept it when it happens," Whedon said. "Instead, we split the dream up, and then we had Loki in the second part of the dream, but then they were like, 'That doesn't work. Do we want to introduce Loki now, this late?"

VIDEO: Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans bro out

Marvel Studio execs also weren't thrilled with the scene in the film in which Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) visits his family at their farmhouse, along with the moments when the characters experience dream sequences. "The dreams were not an executive favorite. The dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought [for]. With the cave, they pointed a gun at the farm's head and 'Give us the cave'. They got the farm. In a civilized way—I respect these guys—but that's when it got really unpleasant. There was a point when there was going to be no cave, and Thor was going to leave and come back and say, 'I figured some stuff out.' And at that point I was so beaten down, I was like, 'Sure, OK...What movie is this?' The editors were like, 'No no, you have to show the thing, you just can't say it,'" the director revealed during the Empire Film Podcast. "I was like, 'OK, thank you. We can figure this out!' You can tell it was beaten down, but it was hard won."

Watch: Does Chris Hemsworth Play Thor With His Kids?