The Curious Change To Korg That Almost No One Noticed In Endgame

A rolling stone gathers no moss — but a walking pile of them is another story.

Marvel fans on Reddit have noticed a slight change to Korg between his appearances in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame, one that illustrates the extent to which he, Miek, and Thor let themselves go during Endgame's five-year time jump.

It's subtle, but significant: when Bruce Banner and Rocket arrive in New Asgard to attempt to recruit the Thunder God for the Avengers' time heist, Korg's lovely blue hue has been marred by patches of green. That's right: the affable rock dude is suffering from a bit of a moss infestation. If you pause the movie to examine him closely (which you can, now that Avengers: Endgame is available on Digital), you can see that he's actually downright lousy with the stuff.

Astute Reddit user AmazingSpdrman1 was the first to point out the change. "In Endgame, you can see Korg has moss forming on his rocks that was not there in Ragnorok," they wrote, "showing how gross the lives of the 'boys' have become."

Indeed, it's easy to miss this hilarious visual signifier during the scene, during which we see the hefty, slovenly "Bro Thor" for the first time. Thor's extra pounds — the result of five years of terrible eating habits, even worse drinking habits, and extreme idleness — have been the subject of all manner of commentary since Endgame's release. While some fans lamented the fact that the Asgardian's weight gain (which was fueled by Thor's depression over his failure to stop Thanos from decimating half of all life in the universe) was played for cheap jokes, others were positively moved by the filmmakers' sensitive treatment of his fragile mental state. Helped along by Chris Hemsworth's amazing performance, Endgame accomplished what no previous Marvel film had done: it brought the God of Thunder down to Earth, showing us mere mortals that not even he is immune from depression and its effects.

Sure, that's not the only unprecedented feat Endgame pulled off. It also smashed every record in the book, up to and including Avatar's $2.7 billion dollar worldwide gross, previously the highest of all time. It put a bow on the 23-film Infinity Saga (although Spider-Man: Far From Home, the final film of Phase 3, tied that bow a little bit tighter), and delivered the most epic battle in the history of superhero cinema in its final act.

It's a movie in which there was a heck of a lot going on for its entire 3-plus hour run time, so fans could be forgiven for overlooking a few patches of creeping foliage. But, now that we've pointed it out, you won't be able to un-see it — and it's a brilliantly low-key way to suggest that Thor isn't the only one who has been sitting on his butt for five years.

Thankfully, we'll almost certainly get to see more of Korg, and perhaps he will have cleaned himself up a bit. Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, who voices the lovable stack of stones, has officially signed on to helm Thor: Love and Thunder, which will make Odinson the first Avenger to get a fourth solo outing. The movie, which is scheduled to hit screens on November 5, 2021, will see the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, who will follow the character's comics arc by picking up Mjolnir to become the Mighty Thor. (We're not sure how she's going to get her hands on it, since it was returned to its proper place in time by Steve Rogers at the conclusion of Endgame, but we digress.)

We can only imagine Korg's reaction to this development. Will he think that Thor has actually somehow become a woman? Will he challenge Foster to a rousing game of Fortnite? Will he propose? Somehow, we think Waititi probably has a few ideas.

At any rate, Korg's little hygiene problem in Endgame illustrates the fact that this epic film is probably still hiding scores of Easter eggs, and it would surprise us not at all if more than a few of them took years for fans to notice. Of course, scouring the flick for every last hidden treasure just got a lot easier with Endgame's digital release, and if physical media is more your speed, you can pick up a copy on Blu-ray or DVD on August 13.