In the early and mid-90s, Rene Russo was everywhere, starring in hit movies like Lethal Weapon 3, In The Line Of Fire, Get Shorty and Tin Cup, but in the last few years she seems to have slightly disappeared from the limelight, apparently cursed by Hollywood’s inability to know what to do with middle-aged actresses (she’s 55). However she’s now got a new meaty role to play with as Kenneth Branagh has cast her in his upcoming Marvel superhero movie, Thor.
Variety reports that she’ll play Frigga, the queen of Asgard and wife of Odin (to be played by Anthony Hopkins). While Variety described her as the mother of both Thor (Chris Hemswroth) and the movie’s villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), in the comics she is Thor’s stepmother and the foster mother of Loki. She will presumably therefore play a pivotal role when Thor is punished and sent to live with humans, but then has to learn what it means to be a real human when his step-brother, Loki, invades the mortal realm. Do I smell a ‘mommy loved you more than she loved me’ storyline?
It’ll be interesting to see how they’re planning to handle Frigga in the film, as in the comics she’s generally been and old woman, which certainly doesn’t seem to be the look they’re going for with the glamorous Russo. We’ll just have to wait and see whether they’re planning some heacy duty aging.
Thor goes into production early next year, with a release planned for May 20th, 2011.