It's a third appearance of Chris Hemsworth as mighty Thor after Kenneth Branagh's Thor filmed in 2011 and Joss Whedon's The Avengers filmed in 2012. The story of Alan Taylor's Thor: The Dark World is a direct sequel of the first movie and it takes place just year after the events of The Avengers. Now Thor stands against the ancient evil embodied in Malekith and his henchmen. This concentrated evil existed even before the history of our Galaxy has began. And there are no forces neither in Asgard nor on Earth to withstand them. Once again the destiny of the whole world is in Thor's hands. Once again he has to come back to Earth and fight with Malekith. When he meets his passion, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), his quest becomes more complicated – to rescue his love interest and save both Earth and Asgard. As for ensemble cast it's quite clear that previous movies successes inspired producers to inflate the budget significantly, besides the actors which were starring in the first movie Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins there some new Hollywood stars: Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who, Heroes, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (The Thing, Killer Elite, Faster), Zachary Levi (Stuntmen, Shades of Ray), and Tadanobu Asano (Battleship, 47 Ronin).