Chris Hemsworth and Robert Kirkman Agree This Paved the Way for Their Comic Book Successes
Chris Hemsworth and Robert Kirkman represent different sides of the comic book spectrum. Hemsworth plays Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kirkman created The Walking Dead which has generated a 10+ season TV show, a spinoff and a third spinoff on the way. After all their success, they both have cameo roles in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Even though Hemsworth and Kirkman only appear in one scene in Kevin Smith’s comedy, they’re both on the Blu-ray giving interviews. Their thoughts on comic book movies and TV shows both include Jay and Silent Bob as vital factors. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is now on DVD, Blu-ray and digital where you can see Chris Hemsworth, Robert Kirkman and many more stars in bonus features.
Chris Hemsworth says Jay and Silent Bob fans are like Marvel fans
Chris Hemsworth appears in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot as himself, a hologram introducing visitors to Chronic-Con, the Bluntman and Chronic convention. Before Marvel movies were so lucrative, Jay and Silent Bob were characters fans followed through the years.
“Obviously there’s such a hardcore built-in fan base for many years,” Hemsworth said. “I think of it similar to the way the comic book fans, people have sort of grown up with these characters and identify with those characters for many different reasons on personal levels and so on. I feel like there’s a shared experience over a big passage of your life with those characters.”
Did Kevin Smith pave the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
In the ‘90s, Kevin Smith connected all of his indie films in the View Asknewiverse. Jay and Silent Bob would visit characters in each of his movies. There were only five films in the ‘90s and a sixth in 2006 but Chris Hemsworth sees the parallel to Marvel films.
“I relate to people who’ve read the comic books and then come in and see the first Thor film and the first Captain America film and Iron Man, right up to the 22nd film that Marvel have done now,” Hemsworth said. “So it’s a big part of people’s lives.”
Robert Kirkman says Jay and Silent Bob made comic books cool
Robert Kirkman isn’t a comic book actor like Chris Hemsworth. Even before he was a television mogul, Robert Kirkman was a comic book reader and author in a then-niche industry. Kevin Smith was among the first to celebrate his passion publicly.
“The reason I started watch Kevin Smith movies was because all of my comic book buddies I knew at the comic shop were like, ‘Oh my God, there are these movies where characters talk about comic book stuff and they make really weird specific references that only we get. I think him bringing that to the pop culture has embodied them as a part of this. Any time comic books are popular, it kind of funnels back into Jay and Silent Bob.”
Robert Kirkman, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot bonus features
There may be a whole generation now growing up in a comic book world. Robert Kirkman hopes both Chris Hemsworth fans and Walking Dead fans appreciate what Jay and Silent Bob did.
“I think they’re hilarious for one, but they embody a fan base,” Kirkman said. “They embody comic book fans. They became popular at a time when comic book fandom was blowing up in multimedia. They really shepherded in a whole era of acceptance with comic book fans.”
