Thor: Love and Thunder will be the next film to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe line-up when it hits cinemas tomorrow, so here’s everything we know to get you ready for it.
The fourth instalment of the Thor franchise is highly anticipated, due to delays caused by reshoots, but it’ll finally be hitting cinemas on July 7.
Without giving too much away, the film follows Thor as he finds himself again after his slump in Endgame. He gets back into shape and leaves the Guardians behind, but comes face to face with his old flame who now happens to wield superpowers and the pair take on the big, bad Gorr the God Butcher.
Basically, this isn’t a movie you want to miss.
Thor: Love and Thunder’s director
After the success of Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi returned to direct Thor: Love and Thunder. Ragnarok continues to be a strong fan favourite due to its humour and charm. It also scored $854 at box office worldwide.
Taika is also returning to voice Korg, the creature made of rocks who made his debut in Ragnarok.
Jane Foster as Thor
Natalie Portman is making her return to the MCU as Doctor Jane Foster after last being seen in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, when she was possessed by the aether.
Throughout the series, Jane Foster has consistently been the love interest of Thor, however, in Love and Thunder, her character seems to have taken quite the turn. In trailers, we have seen Jane Foster wielding super human abilities, as well as the ability to wield Mjolnir – Thor’s hammer.
The trailer doesn’t give much away in terms of how Jane got her newfound powers. However, we do see Jane and Thor teaming up to fight, as well as the God of thunder attempting to hide his feelings towards his ex-flame.
Christian Bale is Gorr the God Butcher
Although totally unrecognisable, it’s Christian Bale’s turn to play the villain. In the comics, Gorr is after revenge when his children and his lover are killed in an earthquake.
In anger, he decides that there are no gods, and is exiled by his people for such a thought. While wandering barren lands, he comes across two gods, one having a symbol which attaches itself to Gorr – similar to Venom. At that moment he becomes Gorr the God Butcher, and he swears to kill all gods for not answering his prayers.
In an interview with IGN, Waititi explained how they redesigned Gorr from the comics to avoid people getting him confused with Voldemort.
‘His face in the comics, unfortunately, does kind of resemble Voldemort. So, I was like, “People are just automatically going to make that connection”.
‘So we decided to depart from that design a bit more and sort of keep elements of the tone, and the fact that he had the sword. Really, it was about his story. That was the most important thing for us.’ Waititi said.
The Guardians Return
The Guardians are sure to bring their comedic element and their epic soundtrack to the film. The last time we saw the group altogether, was when Thor and the Guardians were leaving earth at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Will the movie kick off exactly where Endgame left off? We will have to find out.
Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn and Pom Klementieff are all reprising their roles for the movie.
Who else is returning for Thor: Love and Thunder?
Tessa Thompson will be returning to play Valkyrie, as well as Jaimie Alexander to reprise her role as Lady Sif. Fan favourite Lady Sif was in the first Thor, and also had a cameo in the Disney Plus series ‘Loki’. A new addition to the cast is Russell Crowe, as he is set to play the god Zeus in the movie.
Like in Thor: Ragnarok, there will be cameos in the movie from big names such as Melissa McCarthy, Matt Damon and Luke Hemsworth, who will play a parodied version of Hela, Loki and Thor in the Asgardian play.
We do not know if there will be a return from the God of mischief – Loki himself, but it would feel very fitting. And with all the timeline jumping he up to in his own series, it could work.
When is Thor: Love and Thunder released?
The film is hitting cinemas a day earlier in the UK, on Wednesday, July 7.