It was back in 2011 that director Kenneth Branagh brought the son of Odin to the big screen with the first Thor movie, and now things have come full circle with an uncredited voice cameo in Avengers: Infinity War.
It’s long been rumored that the very first line of dialogue heard in the Marvel mega-hit was spoken by the Northern Irish Academy Award nominee. The opening words take the form of a distress call sent by a spaceship carrying the last survivors of Asgard, including the God of Thunder himself, after their journey’s interrupted by an attack from Thanos and his minions. Though we never see who makes this cry for help, Twitter user Jeremy Conrad has reported that the audio commentary for the movie’s upcoming home video release reveals the speaker’s identity:
“The #InfinityWar audio commentary confirms it IS Kenneth Branagh who is the voice of the Asgardian distress call at the beginning of the movie!”
A veteran of the stage, Branagh has garnered as much recognition for his work in front of the camera as behind it, most notably for his lead turns in Shakespeare adaptations like Hamlet and Henry V, both of which he also directed. With that in mind, perhaps a little thesping in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was overdue, even if the role didn’t amount to much more than a quick bit of ominous exposition.
Along with the commentary tracks, you can expect the film’s various home video release packages to boast plenty more bonus features. For instance, we’ve already been given an early look at a behind the scenes clip detailing the Titan-based fight with Thanos, along with a couple of deleted scenes that feature the return of Happy Hogan and the Guardians of the Galaxy receiving an important message of their own.
There’s much more waiting for you though and you’ll be able to check out the full wealth of features when Avengers: Infinity War arrives on Digital HD on July 31st, and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on August 14th.