Dynamic Concept Art Reveals That Balder Was Once A Part Of The MCU’s Thor

Watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s rendition of Norse mythology, one absence always struck me. Balder, one of Odin’s sons, is one of the more iconic figures in the myths. So where’s Balder?

According to Charlie Wen, former head of visual development at Marvel Studios, that was a question that very nearly had a pretty concrete answer. Lately, he’s been sharing some really beguiling concepts from the early days of the MCU, and now he’s revealed a wonderful concept portrait of a scene from Thor featuring Balder Odinson, along with some background details on what the character might have been like.

Thor almost had Balder!! We were so close. Balder, Thor’s half brother, was in the script at one point, and had a pretty crucial role. I painted this preliminary keyframe of him before finding out that he would be taken out of the film. Balder does add another layer of complexity to Thor’s relationships with Loki, and it was probably a good idea to have him taken out of the first film, but if there was more time to weave out a longer story arc, and Thor had an HBO or Netflix saga, Balder would be a must! * * * * * #thor #funfact #mcu #behindthescene #conceptart

A post shared by Charlie Wen (@imcharliewen) on Aug 24, 2018 at 9:13am PDT

According to Wen, at one point Balder “had a pretty crucial role” that “[added] another layer of complexity to Thor’s relationships with Loki”. Thor already had a lot of heavy lifting to do, so it makes sense to see this child of Odin not make the cut.

Still, his absence is a bit of a glaring hole in the classic Odin-centric family tree of Asgard. Maybe at some point we’ll find out he’s been busy in the frost realm the whole time, and nobody mentioned him. That’s usually how these things go, right?