The shoot for filmmaker Taika Waititi’s upcoming MCU featureThor: Love and Thunderis gaining momentum. The actors involved in the project have been showing up in Australia in steady numbers. The latest actor to join the shoot is Natalie Portman, who has been spotted on set riding a horse while wearing a mask.
This will be Portman’s thirdThormovie after she missed out on the previous featureThor: Ragnarok. That movie mostly took place outside of Earth, so there was not a lot of room to include Portman’s character Jane Foster, an Earth scientist, and Thor’s ex-girlfriend. In a previous interview,Natalie Portmanhad expressed her enthusiasm for joiningLove and Thunderafter a difficult year.
“It’s going to be really silly and funny, and great. We’ve got Taika Waititi… He’s wonderful, so I’m very excited to just be with all of them. I’ve had like months of [lockdown], you know, eating baked goods and lying in bed and feeling sorry for myself. I’m super tired after working out, and during, and dreading before.”
InThor: Ragnarok, it was revealed that Thor andJane Fosterhad broken up. The two appeared to have remained broken up duringAvengers: Infinity War, andEndgame, where Jane was one of the characters that got dusted after Thanos' snap.
Now that Jane is back, she is set to play a much bigger role than the token love interest. It has been confirmed thatLove and Thunderwill adapt a storyline from Marvel Comics where Jane suffers from cancer and becomes anew God of Thunder. In another interview, Portman had stated that her new character will be named “The Mighty Thor”, and she is working hard to bulk up for the role.
“I’m starting to train, to get muscles. If there can be all these female superheroes, the more of them they are, the better it is. I’m trying to think - it’s based on the graphic novel of The Mighty Thor. She’s going through cancer treatment and is a superhero on the side.”
Aside from Jane and Thor,Love and Thunderwill also feature the entire Guardians of the Galaxy team, as well as a powerful new villain called Gorr, the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale. After the bright and whimsicalThor: Ragnarok, it will be interesting to see how Taika Waititi manages to inject his trademark humor into a movie that deals with cancer survival and a psychopathic villain who travels the multiverse laying waste to every deity he can find.
Directed by Taika Waititi,Thor: Love and Thunderfeatures an ensemble lead cast consisting of Chris Hemsworth as Thor Odinson, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster aka The Mighty Thor, Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillen as Nebula, and Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher. The film is expected to arrive in theaters on August 10, 2025.
