Thor: Love and Thunder is the fourth Thor movie, helmed by Taika Waitit, the director behind Thor: Ragnarok. It’ll be coming in 2022, and when the long wait is over, Chris Hemsworth will return as the God of Thunder for the ninth time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Natalie Portman will also reprise her role as Jane Foster, but this time as the Thor-powered version of the character. Speaking of returning characters, Jaime Alexander’s Sif has been confirmed, too, alongside a brand new addition to the cast, Christian Bale. The movie was announced at San Diego Comic Con 2019, along with the official logo, which you can see above.
Filming on Thor: Love and Thunder was originally set to begin in August 2020, but it’ll now be early 2021. The Thor: Love and Thunder release date has been moved to 2022, from an earlier date of 2021, as the entire MCU film slate got pushed back.
Here’s everything we know about Thor: Love and Thunder so far, including its release date, cast, when you’re likely to see a trailer and more.
Thor: Love and Thunder release date
The Thor: Love and Thunder release date is May 6, 2022. It was originally set for November 5, 2021, but like so many movies, it was pushed back by our current world situation.
Thor: Love and Thunder cast
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor
- Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie
- Natalie Portman as Thor/Dr Jane Foster
- Taika Waititi as Korg
- Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher
- Jaime Alexander as Sif
As expected, Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Natalie Portman are returning. Portman will reprise her role of Jane Foster for the first time since Thor: The Dark World in 2013, a gap of nine years when the film finally gets here. She’ll be playing the Thor Goddess of Thunder version of the character introduced by Marvel Comics in 2014. Fan favorite, Sif (Jaime Alexander) will also return, having last appeared in Thor: The Dark World.
And the rampant speculation about Christian Bale has borne fruit: announced as part of Disney Investor Day 2020, the Batman actor will play Love and Thunder’s villain, Gorr, The God Butcher. Gorr, as a part of the original Marvel comic IP, inherits powers to and seeks to use them to kill all gods after his family was killed by one.
It’s expected that director Taika Waititi will play Korg again, having reprised his Thor: Ragnarok role in Avengers: Endgame as the god’s Fortnite buddy.
Will Tom Hiddleston’s Loki turn up in Thor: Love and Thunder? Loki died in the main MCU timeline, but we know the Avengers-era Loki in Endgame managed to escape capture, which will be the subject of the upcoming Loki series on Disney Plus. It’s plausible, then, that Hiddleston could make another appearance.
Idris Elba has expressed an interest in reprising his role as Asgardian gatekeeper Heimdall, but we expect he’s long gone after his death in Avengers: Infinity War.
Thor: Love and Thunder trailer: expect a first look next year
There is no Thor: Love and Thunder trailer yet, and we wouldn’t expect to see one until summer 2021 at the earliest.
Thor: Love and Thunder plot: what we know about the movie’s story
We expect Thor: Love and Thunder to address the way we left the God of Thunder at the end of Avengers: Endgame – that is, overweight, and palling up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. This movie will be released before Guardians Vol. 3, so we expect that plot point to be touched upon here.
Valkyrie was left as the ruler of New Asgard, a seaside village on Earth, so it’ll be interesting to see how their stories link up again.
Love and Thunder will be inspired by the Thor comics of Marvel all-star writer Jason Aaron. In that comic, Odinson loses the ability to lift Mjolnir, and Jane Foster takes on the role of Thor, while simultaneously battling cancer in her human hours.
“When we were shooting Ragnarok I was reading one storyline by Jason Aaron, The Mighty Thor,” Waititi said on-stage at San Diego Comic Con 2020. “And for those of you who know that storyline, it’s incredible, it’s full of emotion, love and thunder, and it introduces, for the first time, female Thor. So, for us there’s only one person who could play that role. Only one.”
Natalie Portman was introduced on-stage during the event, wielding Mjolnir, confirming she’s back to play the character.
Like how Thor: Ragnarok superficially referenced the Planet Hulk storyline from Marvel’s comics, though, we’d be surprised if the film was a literal adaptation of that series. Instead, we expect elements to be lifted from the comics, but for the plot to be largely original.
Waititi has previously described the film as “so over the top now in the very best way,” after writing four or five drafts. “It makes Ragnarok seem like a really run of the mill, very safe film…this new film feels like we asked a bunch of 10 year-olds what should be in a movie and just said yes to everything.” Waititi also indicated that the overweight Thor stuff had been done already, so it’s likely Hemsworth will be in godly shape again this time around.
Nothing specific has been said about Christian Bale’s role in the movie, yet.
More Thor makes a lot of sense
It’s curious that Thor is the only solo series to get four movies in the MCU so far, but Ragnarok was something of a soft reset for the character. Waititi left behind the bland gods and prophecies and made a weird sci-fi comedy with some of the DNA of his other, earlier movies. And the return of Portman here has so much potential to show us new sides of the MCU.
It’s no wonder Waititi’s directing a Star Wars movie after Thor: Love and Thunder. He just makes great, fun movies.