Marvel Studios Announces Natalie Portman As Lady Thor in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’. During Marvel’s massive Hall H panel at San Diego Comic Con International a ton of news about Phase 4 of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) was shared with the world, including the new title for the next Thor film as well as the first appearance of Lady Thor on the big screen.
As Director Taika Waititi shared the news about Thor: Love and Thunder fans grew louder and louder until the sound was deafening. What started with his formal announcement of returning to Marvel to direct the film, the return of Thor himself (Chris Hemsworth), and Tessa Thompson’s (Valkyrie) return as the first official LGBTQ represented superhero in the MCU, Taika also announced that Lady Thor would make her debut on the big screen and would be portrayed by returning Thor Star, Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) and fans were loving it.
Portman has been MIA from the MCU since Thor: The Dark World, and by using archived footage from the film, she made a brief appearance in Avengers: Endgame during Thor and Rocket’s time hop back to Asgard to get the Reality Infinity Stone. She will make her reappearance during Thor: Love and Thunder and how will she plan on doing so? We will have to wait to find out.
Natalie expressed her excitement for this new venture via her Instagram with the caption: “So thrilled to share the news with you today at #sdcc2019 that I’ll be returning to the @marvel #mcu as female Thor with legends @taikawaititi @tessamaethompson and @chrishemsworth. (Remember this as the before picture for when I get jacked).”
One of the reasons Natalie (Jane Porter) has been missing from the MCU was some personal struggles while on set the first two Thor films.
“As an actor, it’s like a completely different scale. Because when you’re making those movies, you’re working with so much blue-screen and so much fantasy your imagination has to be so much larger. It’s really challenging for me,” Portman previously said to Deadline. “I don’t feel like I’ve gotten it yet. I don’t feel like I’ve understood it yet. And so, it is something I’m fascinated by because I’m really challenged by it more than anything almost. Because when you’re in a room that looks like a room and has all the things a room has in it, you can interact with all that stuff, and all that stuff does what it does in life. You don’t have to imagine anything. You’re just in the emotional state of your character. And when you’re doing those blue-screen movies, you have to imagine everything outside and within. You have to create the whole world. It’s like being a kid again.”
We think Natalie will do an excellent job and it will be rather interesting to see how they plan to incorporate Lady Thor into the MCU. One of the biggest questions is how much of the original comic book character will they use in the film since in the comics Jane is diagnosed with cancer and receives help from Asgard after her family passes away. She becomes worthy of wielding Mjolnir and every time she transforms into Lady Thor her cancer gets progressively worse. Marvel could incorporate this storyline or decide to go a whole different avenue.
What exactly will this mean for the future of the franchise? We will have to wait and see when Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theaters November 5, 2021.