Despite its mediocre reviews, Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder was a delightful way to spend a Thursday afternoon and I don’t regret it at all (minor spoilers incoming!).
And while my favorite part was probably the screaming goats (or maybe it was the perfect B-movie feel of the shadow realm planetary showdown), there was only one moment where my ridiculous MCU knowledge made me scream in delight: the sight of Darryl Jacobson as a tour guide in New Asgard, simply living his best life and loving it.
Darryl (played by Daley Pearson) first appeared in 2016 in a series of MCU short films. Daryl was Thor’s roommate while the god adjusted to life on Earth in the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War. In the first short, Thor learned how to send an email (sort of) and how to live with someone else (ehh, kind of). The shorts aren’t at all germane to the plot of Thor: Love and Thunder, but that’s what a good cameo should be: complete fan service.
There are three shorts altogether, each of them featuring plain office worker Darryl and all of which were written and directed by Taika Waititi, who directed the new film — which I suppose somewhat explains why we see Darryl here.
The final (maybe) installment is Team Darryl, which takes place after the events of Thor: Ragnarok when Darryl has relocated to Los Angeles and is looking for a new roommate, presumably because Thor is off-world not because he’s delinquent. Naturally the Grandmaster responds to the ad, and again it goes about as well as you’d expect.
If you subscribe to Disney Plus, all three of these are available in the Marvel One-Shots collection, along with the other Infinity Saga one-shots: The Consultant; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer; Item 47; and the original Agent Carter short.
