New photos from Thor: Love and Thunder give us a better look at Natalie Portman in costume as Jane Foster. The teaser for the upcoming superhero movie showed us Foster’s character wielding Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, and new set photos published by Empire Magazine give us a better look — this time without the helmet. It includes an interview with director Taika Waititi about what fans can expect in this new installment.
As Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are well aware, Thor’s iconic hammer Mjolnir was destroyed in Waititi’s last MCU movie, Thor: Ragnarok. He has since reforged his father’s weapon, Stormbringer, which he is still using in the teaser for Love and Thunder. Meanwhile, his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster shows up dressed as an Asgardian god wielding Mjolnir which has somehow been reforged. This is the cinematic take on the Marvel Comics storyline where Jane becomes “The Mighty Thor.”
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“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 explained to Empire. “I was writing and it was like, ‘wouldn’t it be kind of cool to bring Jane back into the storyline?’ You don’t want Natalie coming back and playing that same character who’s walking around with science equipment. 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.”
Waititi indicated that the relationship between Jane and Thor will be at the real heart of this movie, and that they are treating it like two exes bumping into each other after years apart. He said: “She’s had a whole other life, and then the love of your life comes back on the scene, and is now dressed like you. It’s a real mind f- for Thor.”
Portman made her MCU debut as Jane Foster in the first Thor movie and last showed up in Thor: The Dark World in 2013. It was explained in later movies that she and Thor had split up for unspecified reasons, which fans may finally get some details on in Love and Thunder.
In the comics, Jane is diagnosed with breast cancer around the time that she is invited to become an ambassador for Earth in Asgard’s newly formed Congress of the Worlds. She undergoes standard cancer treatment including chemotherapy but tries to turn down all magical assistance from Marvel’s heroes. However, when she finds Mjolnir and takes on the powers of the goddess of Thunder, she is able to purge all the toxins from her body.
It already looks like the movie will adapt some of these events in one way or another, but obviously, some of them will be impossible to show in the MCU continuity. Thor: Love and Thunder premieres on Friday, July 8 2022 only in theaters.
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 23: (L-R) Natalie Portman, Taika Waititi, Chris Hemsworth, Victoria Alonso, President of Physical, Post Production, VFX and Animation at Marvel Studios, Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt and Jaimie Alexander attend the Thor: Love and Thunder World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in [Hollywood], California on June 23, 2022. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)
