The title of Thor: Love and Thunder suggests a love story full of thunderous action. And that’s what we’d expect from a movie that has not one but two Thors who happen to have been romantically involved in the past. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman) will be reunited on screen for the first time since the ill-fated Thor: The Dark World.
We did see Jane in Endgame, as she was an integral part of the Avengers’ plan to get the Infinity Stones and undo the blip. And it was painfully clear that Thor hardly had time to get over the breakup. And we got an alternate love story between variants of Thor and Jane in What If…?. But that one didn’t really happen in the MCU’s reality.
But going into Love and Thunder, you shouldn’t expect Thor and Jane to get back together. The plot tidbit comes directly from Taika Waititi, the writer and director of Love and Thunder and the creative mind who revived the Thor franchise. Some spoilers might follow below.
We’ll never know how Waititi would have handled Jane before Thor 4. He wasn’t involved in the first two movies, and Thor 2 is one of the low points of the MCU. Not only that, but Marvel underutilized Jane. Portman didn’t even shoot new scenes from Endgame, as Marvel just recycled old footage for that brief cameo.
But what’s clear is that Marvel is ready to reinvent Jane and turn her into the Mighty Thor superhero of the comics. And it’s all happening with Waititi’s help.
What has Jane been up to before Thor 4?
The director didn’t explain why Jane is coming back and how she’s getting to hold Mjolnir — that’s the “thunder” part. We’ve known since the initial Love and Thunder announcement that Jane will become a superhero. And the movie’s first trailer gives us our first look at a Mjolnir-wielding Mighty Thor.
But Waititi teased in an interview with Empire Magazine that his version of Jane will be different than what Marvel gave us so far.
“I didn’t know we were going to use the storyline of the Mighty Thor character until we started working out the actual story,” Waititi revealed. “I was writing and it was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be kind of cool to bring Jane back into the storyline?’”
He went on to say that Love and Thunder will give us a different look at Jane. We’re going to learn that she’s more than the scientist we met in the first two movies.
“You don’t want Natalie coming back and playing that same character who’s walking around with science equipment,” the director said. “You know, while Thor’s flying around, she’s left on Earth, tapping her foot going, ‘When’s he going to be back?’ That’s boring. You want her to be part of the adventure.”
And Jane will be funnier. “Natalie’s really funny in real life,” Waititi said. “She’s kind of goofy and has got a great sense of humor, and I don’t think that was exploited enough in the first films.”
Does Thor have a love interest in Love and Thunder?
He also tackled the love angle, teasing that fans will be surprised about the direction of this love story.
Waititi said that Love and Thunder is a film about “love, with superheroes and outer space.”
“I wanted to embrace this thing that I was always a bit dismissive of, and explore this idea of love, and show characters who do believe in love,” the director continued.
“On paper, it feels kind of cringy to me, but there’s a way of doing it with cool characters making a cool movie, and also having a thing that no fan ever wants in a superhero movie, which is people talking about love, and characters kissing.”
This is where the surprise teaser dropped. “I think most people will assume that the love story is between Chris and Natalie,” Waititi noted. “I can’t promise that what people think is going to happen in this film will happen.”
While both Thors deal in thunder, the question is which Thor version will fall in love.
One more Thor 4 thing
This brings us to the final piece of Thor 4 marketing that’s supposed to keep fans entertained until July. It’s a photo that features three characters, but only two of them will make sense immediately.
King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Mighty Thor sit side by side in battle gear. They look quite gloomy, and we can’t but wonder what’s happening in the meeting above. It’s unclear whether there’s any love between these characters, but they look rather serious in this instance.
Also, someone else is in the room, with Murphy’s Multiverse speculating we might be looking at the avatar of Bast. That’s the panther goddess of Wakanda.
Love and Thunder premieres on July 8th, so the marketing campaign should be picking up steam in the coming weeks.
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