Thor: Love And Thunder Finally Confirms What Happened To His Roommate Darryl
Contains minor spoilers for "Thor: Love and Thunder"
Back in 2016, Marvel Studios released a comedic short — first for audiences at San Diego Comic-Con, then online — titled "Team Thor," in which Thor (Chris Hemsworth) moves in with a roommate named Darryl (Daley Pearson) in Australia. Although it's functionally just a vehicle for jokes, the short served two key purposes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the time. First, it introduced fans to director Taika Waititi's style in advance of his then-upcoming MCU feature film debut "Thor: Ragnarok." Plus, it explains where Thor was during "Captain America: Civil War," away from the rest of the Avengers.
In 2017, still prior to the premiere of "Rangarok," Marvel released a follow-up, titled "Team Thor: Pt. 2." In it, Thor is still living in Australia with Darryl, who rebukes Thor's attempt to pay his share of rent in Asgardian treasure.
Following "Ragnarok," a short titled "Team Darryl" revealed that Darryl moved in with the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Finally, fans heard from Darryl once more in August of 2018, in a clip shared to Pearson's Twitter account.
According to rumors that began circulating before the film's premiere, Darryl would return in "Thor: Love and Thunder." As it turns out, "Love and Thunder" does, in fact, briefly detail the latest development in Darryl's life.
Darryl is now a tour guide at New Asgard
When "Thor: Love and Thunder" opens, Thor has been traveling through space with the Guardians of the Galaxy, whose company he leaves once he learns of the threat posed by the villainous Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). Meanwhile, on Earth, New Asgard has grown from a mere refuge for surviving Asgardians to a fully-fledged tourist destination. It's in this context that the film reveals, in a brief cameo, that Darryl works as a tour guide for New Asgard.
While this is far from confirmation that Darryl will serve a more important role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward, it is, nevertheless, his first official MCU appearance — though those involved with Marvel haven't definitively stated one way or another, fans generally consider the "Team Thor" shorts to be non-canonical.
That said, this might not be the last we see of Darryl. In a 2019 interview with MTV UK, Chris Hemsworth shared that he's open to and enthusiastic about the prospect of a TV show centered around Thor and Darryl's relationship. This was, of course, a non-binding answer to fun interview question. Nevertheless, given Darryl's recent "Love and Thunder" appearance, it appears that multiple key creatives behind "Thor" are actively interested in keeping Darryl's MCU storyline going.