Stuart Townsend, who was cast as one of "The Warriors Three" in Kenneth Branagh's production of Thor for Marvel Studios, has left due to creative differences. Replacing Townsend (left) as Fandral the Dashing will be relative unknown Joshua Dallas (right) according to two anonymous inside sources.

The change reportedly occurred last week and this is slightly curious but not that uncommon. It is very last minute with principal photography is set to begin tomorrow and I wonder what sort of creative dispute would make Stuart want to bail on such a high profile project. This is the first hiccup we've seen from the casting side of things as everything leading up to this point has been on the up and up for what has become an amazingly talented cast.

Joshua Dallas played a prominent role in The Descent: Part 2 and plays a secondary character in George Lucas' Red Tails. I'm not familiar with his acting myself, but I have faith in the team's casting decision at picking budding stars as they did with the title character casting of Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder.

I was interested in seeing Townsend in a cool role as the handsome Asgardian ally of Thor, especially after he was replaced last minute as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Viggo Mortensen. No complaints there as Viggo was perfection as our favorite ranger of the North, but I would have liked to see Townsend in a cool role in an epic such as this.

Joshua Dallas gets his big break here as part of The Warriors Three where he'll fight as Fandral the Dashing along side Ray Stevenson's Volstagg and Tadanobu Asano's Hogun.

What do you think of this news?

Thor takes over Spider-Man 4 for a new release date of May 5, 2011.

Source: Associated Press (hat-tip to our bud Ed Douglas for the find)