The world of Asgard has gotten a little bit bigger with the addition of Richard Brake and Clive Russell to the cast. Normally casting announcements don’t bring much buzz, but the revelation of who these two actors will be playing has fandom going crazy!

Not too much is known about ‘Thor: The Dark World.’ After all, ‘Iron Man 3’ is said to be based on the ‘Extremis’ story arc, ‘The Wolverine’ on the limited series ‘Wolverine’ and ‘Captain America: The Winter’s Soldier’ will be based on the comic series story of the same name. Now add Tyr and the Einherjar army in the Thor mix and speculations are heating up as to what will be seen in the sequel.

Richard Brake

Brake (who is recognized as the man who played Joe Chill, the guy who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in ‘Batman Begins’ and was Portman in ‘Doom ‘) has been cast to play an Asgardian captain in the elite Einherjar, which in Norse mythology are warriors that have died in battle and are brought to Valhalla by the Valkyrie. In the comics, the Einherjar were led by Ander and were responsible for training Thor and have fought alongside him on many occasions. Whether Brake will be playing Ander is unknown at this time.

With Christopher Eccleston playing Malekith the Accursed and the possibility of an Einherjar involvement, rumors that Surtur and his Fire Giants may be part of ‘The Dark World’ have risen. After all, the Einherjar did help to defend Earth against an attack by Surtur and at one time, Surtur did team up with Loki and Malekith for evil means.

Clive Russell

On the gods front, Russell (who will be seen playing Ser Brynden Tully in the upcoming season of ‘Game of Thrones’ and played Captain Tanner in the ‘Sherlock Holmes’films) has been cast as Tyr, the older brother of Thor and Asgard’s God of War. Like Thor, he is a biological son of Odin. In the comics, Tyr has opposed Odin and Thor many times mainly because he loves a good battle and he resents Thor’s relationship with Sif. Couple that with the fact that his younger brother gained the title of Asgard’s greatest warrior, and you have one great psychological study on sibling rivalry. Tyr has been known to work both sides defending Asgard from its enemies but also teaming up with Loki at times.

So what is known so far is that the Dark Elves, the Einherjar, Loki, Tyr, the Mauraders, Algrim the Strong/Kurse, and Malekith will be featured in the film and that the film will take Thor into other worlds. Now that filming has begun, hopefully more story information will be released soon, but until then, what are your theories?

‘Thor: The Dark World’ is directed by Alan Taylor and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Christopher Eccleston and will be released in theaters on November 8, 2013.

Source: Deadline