When Kenneth Branagh starts shooting Thor today, he'll be doing it without Stuart Townsend, who has dropped out of the film due to unspecified "creative differences".
You might recall that a similar situation occurred on** Lord Of The Rings**, when Townsend was either dropped or left the film just before it began shooting (reports differ) and handed Viggo Mortensen the role of a lifetime.
This time, however, it's not such a big part of the movie, and the actor he's been replaced with is largely a newcomer.
Joshua Dallas, who appeared in** The Descent Part 2** and is part of the cast for World War Two pilot drama** Red Tails**, has stepped into the role of Fandral, one of the Warriors Three team of Asgardian warriors (Ray Stevenson and Tadanobu Asano play the other two) who fight alongside Chris Hemsworth's hero.
With that old standby excuse given, we may never know the truth about why Townsend dropped out - but we're sure he'll be really unhappy until he remembers that his fiancee is Charlize Theron.