Stevenson On The Asgard We'll See In Thor 2

Talking with The Wall Street Journal actor Ray Stevenson discussed playing his role of Volstagg, one of the Warriors Three, in Marvel's upcoming sequel "Thor: The Dark World" In the process revealed that Asgard will have a differernt look in the film that will be explained in the film's narrative:

"In the first Thor Asgard had this tremendous peace among the 9 realms. They were riding at the heights. Everything is working and looking as it should be. In this one, the realms are being whipped up into various rebellions. There is a darker malignant force out there and we are in the process of engaging in long protracted skirmishes and battles. The luster and shine of the city has been taken off and it all leads to a huge assault, an attack at the heart of Asgard. It could be completely wiped out, the stakes are a lot higher."

Stevenson adds that Volstagg has a lot more fight scenes in this film than he did in the first movie, and that his character is "great on a battlefield".

Alan Taylor directs the sequel that is on a larger scale than the first film with double the amount of Asgardian characters and the inclusion of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) battling more mythical Norse creatures.

Tom Hiddleston who plays Loki will return as will Natalie Portman playing Jane. Kat Dennings will reprise her role as Darcy Lewis, the spunky sidekick to Portman's from the first film and Idris Elba will be reprising the role of Heimdal. Jamie Alexander plays Sif, ‘Chuck’s’ Zachary Levi is lined up to replace Josh Dallas who will not reprise his role as Warriors Three member Frandral Anthony Hopkins will be back playing Thor's pops. Christopher Eccleston will play the villain--the character of Malekith The Accursed, is the ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim and has magical abilities including teleportation, energy projection, flight, and shape changing ability. He also has a weakness to iron which cancels out his powers. Eccleston takes over from Mads Mikkelsen who was originally slated to play the part but had to pass due to scheduling issues with the Hannibal TV show.The great Alice Krige ("Star Trek: First Contact," "Silent Hill") will play the Dark Elf queen Alflyse. Richard Brake will play a captain in an elite squad of warriors known as the Einherjar. Clive Russell ("Sherlock Holmes") will play Tyr, Asgard’s god of war and the older brother of Thor.

"Saving Private Ryan" scribe Robert Rodat is said to have performed a re-write of the sequel. First Thor co-writer Don Payne had written the first draft.

The film has a Nov. 15, 2013 release date.