With or without Taika Waititi, ‘Thor 5’ would still smash a longstanding superhero record established by one of the worst movies ever

The rumor mill surrounding the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s potential Thor 5 has creaked back into life, this time with “confirmation” that Chris Hemsworth will be returning to the fold for a fifth solo adventure without two-time director Taika Waititi in tow.

Regardless of how much truth there is to the speculation, most people would be perfectly okay with a change of pace for the Asgardian superhero after the wildly polarizing reception to Love and Thunder. Waititi’s Ragnarok is undoubtedly one of the MCU’s best-ever installments, but its successor most definitely is not.

Having already set an in-house record by leading four films, should Hemsworth pick up Mjolnir for one more round, he’ll also blast past a genre benchmark that’s been standing for almost 40 years. The first actor to take top billing in a quartet of blockbuster comic book adaptations was Christopher Reeve, and his tenure as the Man of Steel couldn’t have ended much worse after 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace deservedly gathered a reputation for being one of the worst movies ever made, and it still is as anyone unfortunate enough to have seen it can attest.

Hugh Jackman was technically named first in the credits of five X-Men entries, but neither The Last Stand or Days of Future Past were standalone Wolverine stories, so he arguably doesn’t count. Were Hemsworth to headline Thor 5, then he’d be the first title hero to lead the line in a quintet of comic book capers. We know that “Thor Will Return,” the real question is how, when, and where.