Kenneth Branagh will 'never forget' casting Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston in Thor

Kenneth Branagh will never forget the moment he cast Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston in Thor.

The British actor and director helmed the 2011 movie, which introduced the Norse god to Marvel fans and raked in more than $449 million (£355 million) at the worldwide box office.

The relationship between Hemsworth's Thor and his brother Loki, played by Hiddleston, needed to be a success on-screen, as Marvel boss Kevin Feige planned to focus the ensemble superhero movie The Avengers on the siblings' strained relationship.

And in a new interview with Collider, Branagh recalled the moment that he and Feige decided to offer the roles to the duo back in 2009.

"I'll never forget the moment that we cast those two boys... It was like a sort of meditation or a sort of incantation. Kevin Feige must've walked around this long oval table a hundred times on that Saturday morning as I kept sort of saying, 'I think we should call them.' 'Are you sure?' 'Yeah, I think we should call them.'... and I knew how profoundly serious that decision was," the 59-year-old explained.

"Kevin said, 'We'll never make a more important decision in this company than what's happening in this room, Saturday morning at 10.30, when you pick up the phone to Chris Hemsworth and then Tom Hiddleston. It's either going to work or it's not. Good luck,'" the Dunkirk star added.

Thor, which also starred Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, and Rene Russo, has gone on to spawn three sequels - Thor: The Dark World in 2013, Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, and Thor: Love and Thunder, which is scheduled to be released in 2022.