Walt Disney Pictures have confirmed that ‘Thor 2′ will release in 2013. The date it has planned for right now is July 26th, which pretty much puts it late in the summer and at good distance with ‘Iron Man 3′ which also releases that summer. The main stars are likely to return, but director Kenneth Branagh has already stated that he will not. Which is a shame, since his direction added a lot of drama to the mix.

Deadline also reports that writer Don Payne has been hired to work on the script. The guy worked on the ‘Thor’ script as well as ‘Rise of the Silver Surfer’, which is not inspiring.

Still stoked for a second ‘Thor’ after enjoying the first one more than ‘Green Lantern’.

Deciding that Natalie Portman’s presence in their superhero film is suddenly a huge draw in itself now, Marvel has cut this trailer from her point of view and we get a good look at her character and of Kat Denning’s character as well. The new footage looks amazing and epic, just the way that it should. The only downside this time around is that the movie seems to have a lot more humor about the whole ‘Thor’ idea than I would hope for and even a few Facebook jokes in there. Was expecting more of a serious take. But overall, this is a much better trailer that’s got me excited.

Trailer below.

The epic adventure THOR spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the mystical realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. As a result, Thor is banished to Earth where he is forced to live among humans. When the most dangerous villain of his world sends its darkest forces to invade Earth, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero.

Those who saw the first trailer recognize most of the footage here, but there’s additional scenes with Natalie Portman added in and the action quotient is epic enough to pace this TV spot.

Trailer below.

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, “Thor,” which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It’s while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

The backstory is strong and is very well translated to the screen, the continuity from ‘Iron Man 2′ is perfect, and the effects look amazing. Natalie Portman is probably playing the standard damsel in distress role in superhero movies but you can never have too much Portman. But possibly the biggest force here is Chris Hemsworth who is intense and raw as Thor. Anthony Hopkins is also top-notch as Odin.

The only problem? Some of the elements look way too cheesy. I understand that the plot isn’t realistic at all anyway, but the villain here looks as generic as I can imagine. I’m sure there’s more to the villainy here than the random robot we see but most of the supporting characters stand out in a not-so-good way. Still, pretty excited about the movie but not so much about the converted 3-D.

And the above poster is minimal and well-done as well. Trailer below.

They come to us by Empire Magazine as Marvel starts their promotional machine on the movie even though it’s releasing May of next year. Chris Hemsworth is slowly looking like a brilliant choice to play Thor and the movie overall has a great promising look to it. So far, none of the Marvel produced movies have been bad. And I expect this to follow the tradition.

Rest of the pics below.

Both the images represent key moments of the characters and work brilliantly to hype you up. I haven’t been digging the more recent stuff they’ve been revealing with Odin from Thor, but this redeems all that. Can’t wait for the films anymore.

‘Thor’ image below.

The first photo above reveals for the first time Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Tom Hiddleston as Loki. It also reveals the mighty hammer of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) for the first time. Is it just me or the eyepatch on Hopkins looks ridiculously CGI?

Here’s the plot synopsis:

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, “Thor,” which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It’s while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

After the jump, find out more about the whole 3-D thing the movies are going for and a new ‘Thor’ image.

Marvel has confirmed that both Thor and Captain America will get a 3-D release. Now it’s important to remember that both of them were NOT shot in 3-D. They might have been shot with 3-D conversion in mind, though. Even though I’m strictly against the post production conversion process, I think Marvel has enough time to do this right if they want to. And Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says that “an unprecedented amount of time” will be devoted to the conversion process and that the films lend themselves to 3-D. We’ll see about that.

Expect more goodies as Comic Con approaches. For now, here’s another picture from “Thor” courtesy of shh forums.

Once again, Marvel’s casting decision makes perfect sense. Hemsworth has totally nailed the character here and is looking bad-ass. There’s the fierce expressions and the apt dressing, all that is hard to pull off with a character who is a God himself. I’m stoked for the movie now and this only elevates it.

Movie kicks off summer season in May 2011.

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the epic adventure, “Thor,” which spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and is forced to live among humans. A beautiful, young scientist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), has a profound effect on Thor, as she ultimately becomes his first love. It’s while here on Earth that Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

The film, directed by Kenneth Branagh, is going to star Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo and Stellan Skarsgard. The film opens May 6th, 2011.

He said at an interview at Marvel.com itself:

“To be honest the thing that I’m most excited about right now though, is the screen test we just finished for ‘Thor’. We’ve done some costume tests and watching the Asgardians walk onto the sound stage takes me back to that first time I saw the X-Men on the set all together in Toronto. Only it was unlike anything we’ve ever put on film before! It’s great to be starting the next decade in such an exciting way just as we did last decade. We’re really redefining the comic book genre and what a Marvel movie can be. It’s going to be great.”

Chris Hemsworth is playing Thor, which is an out of the box choice for a huge superhero. You may have seen Hemsworth as the suspicious tourist in the twisty thriller ‘The Perfect Getaway’ last year. But Marvel did not disappoint with Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk so I only expect the best from them.

But will audiences pay to see a Norse God on screen?