Is "Thor: Love and Thunder" Chris Hemsworth's Marvel swan song?
Or will he live to bring the hammer down once again? And which comics should you
read to get hyped up for the newest MCU installment? For all of this and more,
you'll want to watch this before you see "Thor: Love and Thunder."
In a universe where COVID-19 never happened, we would have already seen "Thor: Love and Thunder"
by now. At 2019's San Diego Comic-Con, Kevin Feige revealed during the Marvel Studios panel that the
fourth "Thor" film would premiere on November 5, 2021. Thanks to delays from the pandemic,
that date ended up going to "Eternals." "Thor: Love and Thunder" was pushed back multiple times,
first to February 18, 2022. Shortly after that switch, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that
the movie was bumping up one week earlier to February 11. But Marvel Studios wasn't done yet.
According to Variety, "Thor: Love and Thunder" was moved to May 6, the eventual release date of
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," before finally landing on July 8. This date is
as set in stone as it ever will be, so mark your calendars for the second Friday of July.
As if there were any doubt, Chris Hemsworth is returning in "Thor: Love and Thunder" to
play the titular hero. This marks the Aussie's ninth MCU film appearance, which includes his
small cameo in "Doctor Strange." While that's a whopping amount of MCU flicks,
it still puts him behind Stan Lee with 22, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Evans with 11,
and Robert Downey Jr. with 10 for the most MCU movie appearances.
If Hemsworth is to be taken at his word, "Thor:
Love and Thunder" will not be his retirement movie. In an interview with Elle Man,
the actor joked that his character is far too young for him to consider leaving the MCU.
"Are you crazy?! I'm not going into any retirement period (laughs). Thor is far
too young for that. [He] is only 1500 years old! It is definitely
not a film that I say goodbye to this brand. At least I hope so."
We don't think anyone would be disappointed to have Hemsworth
stick around in the MCU for as long as possible.
While Chris Hemsworth's return in "Thor: Love and Thunder" is to be expected, the announcement
that Natalie Portman would be returning to the MCU in the film was more of a shock. The news
of the actress's return came during the Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019.
While on stage, director Taika Waititi introduced Portman to the Hall H crowd,
saying she was the only person who could play the female Thor in "Thor: Love and Thunder."
Portman's last MCU appearance came in "Avengers: Endgame," although she never actually
showed up to the set during production on that movie. For her appearance there,
old footage of Jane Foster was recycled from "Thor: The Dark World." That movie,
"Thor's" first sequel, marks the last time Portman filmed for Marvel Studios, as she did not appear
in "Thor: Ragnarok." Her absence in that film is briefly explained in an offhand reference.
"Sorry to hear that Jane dumped you."
"She didn't dump me. I dumped her. It was a mutual dumping."
Variety reported the off-screen reason was that Portman was disappointed with "Thor:
The Dark World," and less-than-happy when original director Patty Jenkins left the project.
Regardless, the past is the past, and presumably, money talks. Regardless of how they got her there,
Portman is back and better than ever in "Thor: Love and Thunder."
"Thor: Love and Thunder" will be Tessa Thompson's third go-round as Valkyrie
after debuting in "Thor: Ragnarok" and fighting at the Battle of Earth in "Avengers: Endgame."
The last we saw of Valkyrie was after Thanos was defeated in the fourth "Avengers" film.
She says goodbye to Thor, who informally declares her the new king of Asgard.
At the Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019,
Thompson revealed that one of Valkyrie's first orders of business would be to find her queen.
This makes Valkyrie's return in "Thor: Love and Thunder" all the more important.
Thompson noted her excitement about this plot
point when catching up with The Wrap earlier this year. The actor said,
"We talk so much about representation and obviously, in terms of the LGBTQIA community,
there's still so much work to be done. Unfortunately,
there's not a lot of time invested in love stories in Marvel movies in general. I think
that will be a little different on the new 'Thor,' which is exciting."
In January 2020, Collider reported Christian Bale was in talks to join "Thor: Love and Thunder." 11
months later, Marvel Studios confirmed on Twitter that the Academy Award winner would be portraying
the villainous comic character Gorr the God Butcher. The actor has stayed silent on his role
in the upcoming film, which has only heightened the mystery of his character. Taika Waititi had
some interesting comments regarding Bale's Gorr, however. He told the Associated Press,
"In my humble opinion, we have probably the best villain that Marvel's ever had in Christian Bale."
While the news of Bale joining an MCU project might have seemed shocking to some fans,
the actor's resume proves he won't shy away from a superhero flick.
The actor famously played Batman in Christopher Nolan's highly-praised "Dark Knight" trilogy
from 2005 to 2012. Bale was lauded for his portrayal of the Caped Crusader and Bruce Wayne.
"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."
"Thor: Love and Thunder" will show us Bale on the opposite side of the
superhero spectrum, playing one heck of a baddie.
Specific plot points of "Thor: Love and Thunder" are being kept under wraps, but we can make some
educated guesses about what might happen in the film based on the Marvel Comics lore. Gorr
first debuted in 2012's "Thor: God of Thunder #2" making him a relatively new character considering
Thor was created in 1962. Gorr had it rough: he grew up on a nameless planet in deplorable
conditions and was told his whole life that the gods would provide for him, but they never did.
Everyone close to Gorr dies tragically, including his parents, partner, and children.
After living in such devastation, he assumes there is no such thing as gods and gives up on the idea.
One day, he comes across two of them battling when they land on his planet. Knowing they're real,
he makes it his mission to destroy every last one of them. He successfully kills many
and battles Thor on several occasions, but this is where it gets interesting.
Gorr can travel the timestream thanks to obtaining the blood of the Time Gods.
This allows him to battle different Thors all across the time stream,
which makes Gorr a pretty intimidating threat for any number of Thors to face in the new film.
According to Deadline, Russell Crowe's involvement in "Thor: Love and Thunder"
was supposed to be a secret. Unfortunately, the actor was spotted out one too many times
in Australia with several other cast members, and the cat was out of the bag. His inclusion
in the film was confirmed in March 2021, and his role was later revealed by the actor himself.
While chatting with an Australian radio show, Crowe said he had to leave to head to a studio.
"Now, I'm gonna get on my bicycle, I'm gonna ride up to Disney-Fox studios ... and round about 9:15,
I shall be Zeus in 'Thor 4.' It's my last day of Zeus-ing about."
Like Christian Bale, Crowe's entrance into the MCU is preceded by time working on a DC
project. The Oscar-winning actor played Jor-El, the father of Superman in 2013's "Man of Steel."
We're not sure how big of a role Zeus will play in "Thor: Love and Thunder," but Crowe
certainly seems to enjoy playing the character. The actor changed his Twitter avatar shortly
after the film's first official trailer dropped, with a screenshot of him as Zeus.
This fourth "Thor" solo movie isn't that much of a "solo" affair. Like many MCU sequels before it,
"Love and Thunder" serves as a superfriend team-up of sorts. "Thor: Love and Thunder" will feature a
majority of the Guardians of the Galaxy. When we last saw the team, they were in the Benatar
after the Battle of Earth in "Avengers: Endgame." Thor joined them on board, where he and Star Lord
argued over who was in charge. The Asgardians of the Galaxy were born, and for all we know,
Thor has been traveling across the universe with his new pals in the meantime.
Based on what we see in the trailer and teaser for the film,
it looks like all the Guardians are back except for Gamora. The galaxy's deadliest assassin is
currently in hiding after time traveling from 2014 to 2023 in "Avengers: Endgame."
That said, don't expect the Guardians to take center stage in "Thor:
Love and Thunder," as it's suspected they will play a role in just the first act.
Another former "Thor" and "Thor: The Dark World" star is returning after missing "Thor: Ragnarok."
Deadline broke the news of Jaimie Alexander's inclusion in "Thor: Love and Thunder" in
December 2020, revealing that the actress was returning to the franchise as Lady Sif.
While Alexander has been on a lengthy break from the MCU, she did return as Sif in Episode 4 of
"Loki," when Loki is forced to relive one moment from his life over and over again on a time loop.
Alexander also voiced Lady Sif in Episodes 3 and 7 of the Disney+ series "What If...?"
After Episode 4 of "Loki" aired, Alexander took to Instagram to proudly declare
Lady Sif was back, adding that she was here to stay. Of course,
Whether Lady Sif will actually stick around past "Thor: Love and Thunder" remains to be seen.
And that's not all. In July 2021, Matt Damon confirmed his own return to the MCU
during an appearance on The Jess Cagle Show. Following up on a hilarious scene from "Thor:
Ragnarok" in which he played an actor portraying Loki,
he'll be joined by Luke Hemsworth as the actor portraying Thor. Turns out,
their one-off cameo appearances in the third "Thor" movie won't be one-offs after all.
"We had a ball, and so Taika had us back again, to kind of
run that joke back and upgrade it a little bit."
Also returning is Sam Neill, who played Actor Odin in "Thor: Ragnarok."
An unofficial "Thor: Love and Thunder" Twitter account,
not endorsed by Marvel Studios, has already shared some leaked set photos which showed
the "Jurassic Park" actor in full Odin gear. With these three stars returning,
we suspect we'll get another Asgardian play — this time perhaps about the events of "Thor: Ragnarok."
"I think they sussed out, because paparazzi took pictures of us,
so that they sussed out what we were doing."
If they're recounting "Thor: Ragnarok," that means they'd need a Hela. While still unconfirmed,
it looks like none other than Melissa McCarthy will be playing the role of Hela's actor.
The Daily Mail shared photos of the actress on the "Thor:
Love and Thunder" set sporting a costume that looks an awful lot like Hela's.
These photos landed three months after McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, shared a pretend
audition tape on Instagram asking Taika Waititi if they could be in "Thor: Love and Thunder."
"Thor: Love and Thunder…"
"We could be love and thunder…"
Naturally, Taika Waititi is back in the director's chair for "Thor: Love and Thunder." The filmmaker
became a household name after revitalizing the "Thor" franchise with "Thor: Ragnarok" in 2017.
Waititi managed to bring color, laughter, and a solid story to the Asgardian world,
which makes his return to "Thor 4" no surprise.
Waititi is approaching "Love and Thunder" differently than
"Ragnarok" though. When catching up with Entertainment Weekly,
the director admitted he didn't want to make the same MCU film a second time. The filmmaker said,
"'Ragnarok' felt a bit like a party. It was quite festive. This one is still fun,
and it's got moments of being over the top, but thematically, it's about something a bit deeper
than the last film. It's not a serious film, and it's not a drama, but we do deal with ideas that I
think a lot of humans deal with — universal themes about love and loss and our place in the world."
He also noted that his experience with his first MCU film allowed him to shoot "Thor:
Love and Thunder" in a much more efficient way.
"The whole thing's a f—ing mess, Taika."
Waititi also returns in the film as Korg,
the lovable Kronan we met on Sakaar in "Thor: Ragnarok."
"Is that some sort of protoplasm, all the stuff that's coming out of you,
or are they eggs? It looks like eggs."
The first "Thor: Love and Thunder" teaser dropped in April 2022 and briefly touched
on what's been going on with Thor since we last saw him. We got a brief shot of Bro Thor with his
massive beer belly exercising with chains while sporting a "Strongest Avengers" trucker hat.
It looks like he sheds the weight with ease, as the rest of the teaser shows him in tip-top shape.
The Guardians of the Galaxy are featured heavily in the teaser,
with Star-Lord seeming annoyed with his new friend.
Thor sports some Ravager-looking clothes and bids the Guardians farewell as they fly through
a portal, resembling one like the space jump scene from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2."
The teaser hints that "Thor: Love and Thunder" will see Thor on an emotional journey as he tries
to find out who he is and what his purpose is in this universe. It looks like most of
the characters are on a path to self-discovery, including Valkyrie, who seems rather bored with
her leadership role on New Asgard. The peaceful vibes of the teaser are disrupted at the end when
Jane Foster claims Mjolnir, and we get our first look at Mighty Thor before the clip abruptly ends.
A month later, "Thor: Love and Thunder" got its first full trailer. With 45 seconds more
of content, there was a lot to unpack. While the teaser was light and airy, the trailer was a tad
darker as it gave us the first look at Christian Bale's menacing villain, Gorr the God Butcher.
Clearly, this guy has a grudge, but all we know from what we were shown is that he's creepy,
has a grudge, and looks like he'll be a worthy adversary to Thor.
Also stealing the show in the trailer is Jane Foster, who we only see in Mighty Thor gear and
wielding Mjolnir. Thor is totally shocked to see his ex-girlfriend show up out of nowhere,
let alone holding his beloved hammer, and it's clear there are still feelings between the two.
Valkyrie picks up on this and questions Thor about what's going on between them.
Jane's Mighty Thor is also shown summoning lightning in a mysterious dark hall or cave,
surrounded by gold statues – some of which appear to represent important characters
from Marvel Comics such as the Living Tribunal, the Watcher, Infinity, and Death.
Additionally, the trailer takes us to Olympus, where we see Russell Crowe's Zeus for the first
time. Surrounded by women, the god has Thor chained to the floor and strips off
all of his clothes, causing an astounding number of people around Zeus to faint.
There's also a look at Jane competing in some kind of battle on Olympus,
promising both comedy and action in this particular hall of the gods.
During the "Thor: Love and Thunder" panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019,
Taika Waititi revealed that the new movie is inspired by "The Mighty Thor" comics storyline
from 2015. Written by Jason Aaron, the story follows Jane Foster as she becomes the Goddess
of Thunder after wielding Mjolnir. Tragically, Jane also has breast cancer at this time,
and every time she holds the hammer and transforms, the chemotherapy is eradicated
from her body. However, Mjolnir will not eliminate the cancer from her system,
meaning she significantly risks death by continuing to wield the hammer.
Despite knowing that her heroism could lead to her death, Jane transforms into the Goddess of
Thunder one too many times, and she ultimately dies after defeating Asgardian threat Mangog.
However, after her death, Jane refuses to go through the gates of Valhalla and
is resurrected by Odin. She returns to Earth, and her cancer eventually goes into remission.
Could this mean a surprise appearance by Anthony Hopkins? Odin might be gone in the MCU,
but if he meets Jane at the gates of Valhalla, anything is possible.
Jane's cancer storyline may have been confirmed for "Thor: Love and Thunder" thanks to the
description of a replica Thor helmet that's part of the official merchandise for the film.
The Direct picked up on this subtle leak, as the helmet's description reads,
"Suffering from cancer, astrophysicist and Thor's ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster,
visited New Asgard and her life was changed forever."
The Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline – it's a fickle little sucker that is more
confusing now than it's ever been. But whenever a new MCU project comes around,
we have to figure out where we're supposed to jam it in.
Thanks to the time jump in "Avengers: Endgame," the actual Earth that we live on
doesn't quite match up with the date in the MCU. As we reside in 2022,
Earth's Mightiest Heroes are living somewhere in 2024 or 2025.
However, it might be easier to pin "Thor:
Love and Thunder" on the timeline based on what we see in the trailer.
Thanks to the appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy, we can assume "Thor:
Love and Thunder" takes place shortly after the events of "Avengers: Endgame," when Thor left
Earth and the fledgling New Asgard to go on an adventure with the spacefaring team. A lot of
Phase 4 MCU films happen simultaneously, so "Thor: Love and Thunder" could very well be occurring
during the same time as films like "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" or "Eternals."
Being an MCU movie, "Thor: Love and Thunder" comes with dime-a-dozen fan theories and rumors.
Since the project was announced, there has been much speculation about who might be
popping up in the film. Cameos in the MCU are extremely hard to keep a secret these days,
so if the powers-that-be can pull off a shocking cameo, our hats are off to them.
Perhaps the biggest rumored cameo is that of Ryan Gosling,
who some believe is joining the MCU based on one lunch Gosling and Taika
Waititi were spotted having together before filming began on "Thor: Love and Thunder".
Gossip site Just Jared shared photos of the duo together in August 2019,
and fans began speculating who he might play on Reddit. Beta Ray Bill's name seems to keep
popping up, all via fan theory, but it's also possible Gosling isn't in this at all.
Inverse reported on some rumors, which they admitted were sketchy, that suggest Jeff Goldblum
will reprise his role as the Grandmaster, and Rachel House will also be back as Topaz. Also
possibly appearing is teeny tiny Throg – aka Thor, but a frog. We got a glimpse of
the amphibian in "Loki" Episode 5, which was actually a surprise Chris Hemsworth cameo.
Speaking of Loki, what about Tom Hiddleston? We haven't heard anything official. Even
though he seems to be dead in the timeline "Thor: Love and Thunder" takes place in,
you can't count out the God of Mischief – after all, there are so many of them.
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