Tom Hiddleston has developed quite the fan following for his work portraying top Marvel villain Loki in the Thor movies and The Avengers, but it may come as a surprise to you to discover that Hiddleston did not initially go out for the role of Loki. He actually first auditioned for the lead role of Thor, which ultimately went to Chris Hemsworth.

With the Blu-ray for Thor sequel Thor: The Dark World coming next month, a peek at one of the special features has surfaced online. The peek comes from a Thor Screen Test in which a blond long-haired Hiddleston is seen auditioning for the lead role as the God Of Thunder, even wielding the mighty hammer Mjölnir. You can see what Loki looks like as his brother Thor here below!

Thor: The Dark World was one of the most fun times to be had at the theater last year and another not-so-rare case of a sequel surpassing the original on nearly every level. The movie will be hitting Blu-ray next month, so obviously it’s high time that a list of the bonus features we can expect be released. These supplements were recently rated by the British Board of Film Classification and the Blu-ray is set to include the usual audio commentaries, deleted and extended scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, a first look at the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and a gag reel.

Plus, since this is a Marvel Studios release, it looks as if we’ll be getting the latest Marvel One-Shot short film, which is titled All Hail the King and runs a reported 16 minutes.

Sometimes you can gauge the audience interest in a potential tentpole blockbuster movie simply by observing the great lengths certain individuals will go to in order to honor those big-budget entertainments, or even burn them in mocking effigy.

Whenever a new trailer for one of these eagerly-anticipated features is released you can always expect there to be a “sweded” version or two uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo within days. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, “sweded” basically means a group of amateur filmmakers get together with whatever resources they can scrounge up and make their own identical version of the slicker Hollywood trailers. Some of them often use shots from the real trailers to plug in gaps in their dollar bin attempts, but the makers of the best sweded trailers will recreate every component themselves, from the visual effects to the shot composition to even the bloody generic music that underscores these 2.5-minute blasts of money shots.

Submitted for your approval and enjoyment are sweded trailers for 8 of the year’s biggest blockbusters, like Star Trek Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, and more. Depending on your perspective you might find some of these homemade previews better than the genuine articles. Even if you don’t, you have to admit they are pretty amusing.

The Walt Disney Studios has once again impressed Hollywood with the news that it has topped the $4 billion mark (worldwide) for the first time ever. 2013 saw the releases of numerous tentpole pictures under the Disney brand, including films from Marvel and Pixar. But is this strategy, which appears almost go-big-or-go-home at times, positive?

The numbers tell a story, but so do the quality of the pictures. In many ways Disney beat other studios that suffered from major financial failures (most notably, Sony, which saw disappointing figures for many of its summer releases). But even with one box office bomb (sorry, The Lone Ranger), Disney made major strides. Let us explore what worked, and what could be improved in the future.

The attraction Thor: Treasures of Asgard is now open at Innoventions at the Disneyland park in Anaheim, CA.

Check out the video here below from Disney Parks Blog that gives a look inside the attraction, which includes the mighty Thor himself, along with objects brought to Earth from Asgard, as well as a trip across the Bifrost to Asgard itself!

Thor: Treasures of Asgard will be open at the park from now through the holiday season; the Thor: The Dark World feature film opens in theaters on Friday, November 8, 2013.