For years, Marvel fans assumed Natalie Portman was finished playing Jane Foster in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe.
That all changed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, when it was announced that she'd return to
wield Mjolnir as the Mighty Thor in 2021's Thor: Love and Thunder.
But what brought her back to the MCU?
Natalie Portman was widely reported to be unhappy with Marvel while filming Thor: The
Dark World.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Portman had championed director Patty Jenkins to helm
the movie and was shocked when Jenkins was fired from the project.
Portman wanted Jenkins to be the first female director in the MCU and was blindsided by
Jenkins' termination, as she was allegedly not told ahead of time and only learned of
it through news reports.
Unable to leave the project due to contractual obligations, Portman stuck it out and completed
The Dark World, but behind the scenes, she may not have been shy about her feelings regarding
the whole ordeal.
Still, in public, she never badmouthed Marvel.
When asked about her relationship with the company in interviews, she was always expertly
vague with her answers.
Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok is wildly different from the first two Thor movies, which can't
help but seem stuffy and downright dour compared to the visually splendid comedy feast Waititi
gave us.
Let's face it, Thor can sometimes be a bit boring.
Sure, he's the God of Thunder, but he's also been a kind of stick in the mud.
Waititi, along with screenwriters Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, and Christopher L. Yost, managed
to keep the sweet innocence of Thor's character but made him much more fun-loving and way
less stiff.
"Baby!"
"Moron!
You big child!"
"Thor go!"
"I am going!"
Thor comes into his own in Ragnarok, played perfectly by Hemsworth, whose comedic chops
are on full display.
Natalie Portman wasn't going to come back to the Marvel fold for just anyone.
Waititi's idea for a female Thor had to be very attractive for Portman, and she must
trust Waititi's vision to want to sign back up with the company she said she was "done"
with just a few years ago.
"For the first time: Female Thor.
Please, welcome to the stage, Natalie Portman!"
According to studio chief Kevin Feige, the director won his new star over very quickly.
He told CNN:
"We'd been in touch with Natalie.
She's part of the MCU family and we put she and Taika together.
It took one meeting and she agreed to do it."
If only all creative decisions were so simple.
Jane Foster is a world-renowned astrophysicist, but she's often come off as a damsel in distress
in the MCU, so it's not a surprise Natalie Portman spent years publicly ambivalent about
returning to the character.
That, combined with the fallout from Marvel firing Patty Jenkins, was more than enough
to keep her away.
But being offered the chance to play Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor provides Portman
with so much more than just being regarded as Thor's ex-girlfriend.
She gets to portray another female superhero in the MCU.
She won't be seen as merely a love interest for Thor Odinson; she will be his equal.
Portman has used her previous appearances as Dr. Jane Foster to inspire young women
around the world to get involved in the sciences, so the thought of bringing Dr. Foster back
and being Thor must have been very appealing.
Natalie Portman's Jane Foster has long been one of the most powerful intellects in the
MCU, but it'd be tough to play a character dubbed the Mighty Thor without adding some
brawn to that brainpower - and Portman is already planning to buff up for her role in
Thor: Love and Thunder.
Shortly after Marvel's surprise Comic-Con announcement, she took to social media to
express her enthusiasm for the project, posting an Instagram update in which she pronounced
herself "thrilled" to share the news - and promised to hit the gym for all that hammer-wielding
action.
She quipped: "Remember this as the 'before' picture for when I get jacked."
Will Portman be taking workout tips from Chris Hemsworth?
Only time will tell, but in the comics, Jane Foster spent her time as the Mighty Thor wiping
the floor with a laundry list of powerful adversaries that included such heavyweights
as Mangog, Malekith, the Phoenix Force, and even Odin himself - it'll take one heck of
a gym regimen to prepare her for whatever she's due to face in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Tom Petty warned us that the waiting is the hardest part.
Thor: Love and Thunder hasn't even started shooting yet.
According to Movieweb, the film, which is slated for release in November 2021, won't
begin production until the completion of Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
in 2020.
This means we've got a very long wait ahead of us before we get to see Natalie Portman
and the rest of the cast in the fourth Thor movie.
Marvel is very good at keeping secrets, so don't expect to hear much from the set even
after it does finally start filming.
But don't feel too bad, Marvel fans - the studio will serve up a few movies to keep
us entertained until Thor: Love and Thunder comes out, including Black Widow, The Eternals,
the aforementioned Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Doctor Strange and the
Multiverse of Madness.
Marvel also has plenty of upcoming television shows slated to air on the Disney+ streaming
channel, including Loki starring Tom Hiddleston.
Let the countdown to November 2021 begin!
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