Erik Selvig

"I had a god in my head. I don't recommend it."

- Erik Selvig

Erik Selvig is an astrophysicist and the teacher of Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis. Dr. Selvig was a Professor of at Culver University, where he kept many of his notes. They were confiscated from him by S.H.I.E.L.D., but returned once he was recruited as a professor at S.H.I.E.L.D.

Early Life
After having become a professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Culver University, Selvig looked into Gamma Radiation and meet a victim of a Gamma accident, Bruce Banner. He had also had a friend, where S.H.I.E.L.D. confiscated his documents. He met Jane Foster, and her father at the school.

Finding Thor
Selvig was traveling with Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, to study thermonuclear astrophysics. While researching in the desert, a sudden mysterious weather event unexpectedly resulted in a powerful vortex before them. As they struggled with the zero-visibility conditions, the van collided with Thor, who stumbled out of the dust. Thor announced himself as an Asgardian God, to the "Mortals", but was injured when Lewis tazered him. They decided to take him to the local hospital shortly after.

Getting Thor out of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The following day, Jane Foster realized that the newcomer might be able to shed some light on the event, Selvig was more skeptical. So began a lengthy disagreement between the two, with Foster theorizing about the possibility of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge and Selvig insisting that everything Thor had been saying about gods and other worlds was nothing more than delusional talk based on old myths.

However Selvig later befriended Thor, after agreeing to Foster's theory. Selvig was able to secure Thor's release from a temporary S.H.I.E.L.D. compound by claiming that he was Donald Blake after Thor had broken into the compound to retrieve Mjølnir. After being saved from the compound, he was later found drinking heavily with Thor at a town bar, inferring Thor to claim that Selvig had "made his ancestors proud".

Thor Fights the Destroyer
Thor's evil adopted brother, Loki, was made king of Asgard, and sent The Destroyer after Thor to kill him. Thor's friends, Sif and the Warriors Three came to help him. Thor was wounded by the Destroyer, but his bravery and heroics made him worthy enough to have Mjølnir, which flew to his aid, healing him and putting him in his Asgardian armor. Thor defeated the Destroyer and he, with Sif and the Warriors Three, returned to Asgard.

Selvig Joins S.H.I.E.L.D.
Later on, Selvig was ordered to the presence of Nick Fury after Thor returned to Asgard. Fury opened a storage case, presenting the Tesseract. When Selvig asked "what is it?", Fury replied that it represented a significant source of power, if only they could find a way to tap it. Selvig accepted the challenge of investigating the object, since his recent encounter with Thor and his studies into thermonuclear astrophysics. Loki, controlling Selvig from Thanos' planet, stared with intense interest with the Tesseract, since he had been controlling Selvig throughout the whole conversation.

Controlled by Loki
While researching into the Tesseract for S.H.I.E.L.D. at the main facility of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., Selvig found an unusual energy signature coming from the power source. Selvig immediately alerted S.H.I.E.L.D. and all nonessential personnel were evacuated as the cube started to send of dangerous amounts of energy. When Nick Fury arrived in response to the alarms, Hawkeye suggested that, since the Tesseract is a multi-dimensional object, perhaps it was being manipulated from the other side of one of those dimensions, like a door. Shortly thereafter, the Tesseract opened a portal and Loki appeared. He attacked and killed many of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents present and wounded Fury. Using his scepter, Loki took control of Hawkeye and Selvig, immediately bending their will to serving his purposes. Selvig and Barton help Loki escape out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, taking the Tesseract with them.

In a secret location away from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control, Selvig worked to stabilize the Tesseract, constructing a framework based on information supplied through the cube itself. Based on what he learned, he sent Hawkeye to go acquire iridium to help stabilize the Tesseract.

Selvig then took the Tesseract to the highest point of the Stark Tower, and used it to open a portal to the waiting Chitauri invasion army. When the Chitauri attacked Earth under Loki's command, Selvig was confronted by Iron Man, who attempted to stop the portal from opening. Selvig revealed to him that the force field surrounding the Tesseract was unbreakable, and that nothing could be done to close off the portal. However, Selvig was knocked unconscious when Iron Man tried to close the portal and blasted the force field.

Battle of New York
When he woke up, Selvig found himself alone with the Black Widow, who was attempting to close the portal. With Loki's mind-control gone, Selvig told her that some part of his consciousness was still awake during Loki's mind-control, and that he inserted a flaw in the Asgardian's plan: the force field around the Tesseract could be undone with Loki's scepter. After following Selvig's advice, the Black Widow used the scepter to close the portal, after Iron Man sent the nuclear missile that the World Security Council sent to destroy the invasion into it to destroy the Chitauri Command Center. The missile hit the Command Center disconnecting the link between it and the Chitauri, killing them. Later, when Loki was given to Thor, who took him back to Asgard to be put on trial for his crimes, Selvig greeted his friend, and gave him the Tesseract to be taken back to Asgard since Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. decided it was too great a force for humans to mess with. Selvig then departed home. Jane Foster later met him after the battle and asked where Thor was, only for Foster to quickly realize he had left again.

The Convergence
A year after the battle of New York, Selvig while free of Loki's mind control was still affected by having been under Loki's control for so long. In London, Selvig was arrested at Stonehenge after stripping nude and apparently harassing the bystanders with his lab equipment claiming he was trying to save them. After being put in a mental institution, Selvig continued to explain his theories about the Convergence to his fellow inmates. He was eventually rescued by Darcy Lewis and her new intern Ian Boothby. After witnessing the Convergence effect on a flock of ravens, Selvig took comfort in knowing that the the world "is crazier than you are" and promptly threw his pills away.

Back at their apartment Selvig was greeted by Thor and Jane Foster who had traveled back from Asgard. Selvig quickly asked Thor if Loki was coming and found great relief after Thor informed him that Loki was dead but hid it for Thor's sake. As the group came up with a plan to stop Malekith from unleashing a powerful weapon known as the Aether on the Nine Realms Erik quickly realized that all the coordinates past civilizations had made relating to the Convergence lead to Greenwich. The next day, Malekith and his army of Dark Elves arrived and began attacking Greenwich. While Thor fought them off, Selvig and Foster used devices made to detect gravitational anomalies to teleport some of the soldiers away.

After a long battle between him and Thor, Malekith arrived at the center of the Convergence and prepared to unleash the Aether on the Nine Realms as Selvig, Foster, and Thor watched from a distance. Selvig claimed that they couldn't get close to use the devices; Thor, being the son of the Allfather, could however, so he grabbed the devices and threw them at Malekith, teleporting his body away as Thor collapsed from exhaustion. Malekith's ship began to fall. As Foster attempted to move Thor out of harm's way, Selvig teleported the ship to Malekith's location causing it to fall on and kill him. Three days later as Selvig, Foster, Lewis and Boothby sat in the apartment eating breakfast, Foster reassured them that Thor would return after he got done talking to his father.

Thor later did indeed return, this time with the intent of remaining on Earth with his friends.

Friends and Allies

 * Thor - Friend
 * Jane Foster - Colleague and Friend
 * Darcy Lewis - Assistant and Student
 * Ian Boothby - Assistant and Student
 * Bruce Banner - Ex-colleague
 * Henry Pym - Colleague
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Nick Fury - S.H.I.E.L.D. Director
 * Phil Coulson - S.H.I.E.L.D. Liaison
 * Hawkeye - Colleague

Enemies

 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Dark Elves
 * Malekith † - Unexpected Victim

Trivia

 * When talking about S.H.I.E.L.D., Selvig tells Jane Foster he once had a friend specialist in Gamma radiation who disappeared after meeting the organization, clearly making a reference to Bruce Banner.
 * When talking about S.H.I.E.L.D., Selvig also tells Jane Foster he would email a colleague who has had dealings with S.H.I.E.L.D. and who might be able to help. The name of this person was not revealed; however, in a deleted scene, this colleague was revealed to be Dr. Henry Pym A.K.A. Ant-Man. This was cut as Marvel Studios thought it was not the correct time to introduce Ant-Man.
 * As seen in The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week, Selvig was unknowingly being controlled by Loki since the after-credits scene from Thor, before being fully controlled in the beginning of The Avengers.

Behind the Scenes

 * Originally, his name was going to be Andrew Ford, but was changed.
 * Skarsgård stated that he was not initially familiar with Thor. As to why he took the part, Skarsgård remarked, I "chose Thor because of director Kenneth Branagh. The script was nice and we got to rehearse and talk to the writers and do some collaborating in the process to make it fit us. So I had a very happy time on it. What I always try to do is immediately do something I just haven't done so I get variation in my life. I've made about 90 films and if I did the same thing over and over again I would be bored by now. I try to pick different films, I go and do those big ones and having done that I can usually afford to go and do some really small obscure films and experiment a little."