Not counting her incredibly brief appearance in Avengers: Endgame, it’s been a minute since fans got to catch up with Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the character only mentioned in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor heading to the cosmos for the adventure in Thor: Ragnarok, the spotlight shifted away from her.
Now, however, the spotlight is swinging back to her in a major way with Thor: Love And Thunder, with Jane transforming into Mighty Thor, and the actor recently discussed her experience not only getting back into the role, but digging into the details regarding what she has been up to since her last substantial appearance in a Marvel blockbuster.
I sat down with Natalie Portman last weekend during the Los Angeles press day for Thor: Love And Thunder, and the first subject we discussed was her process “catching up” with Jane Foster (as Marvel fans know, a lot of crazy stuff has happened in the canon since 2013). According to Portman, it was a collaborative process, and with input not just coming just from herself and writer/director Taika Waititi. She explained,
It was really exciting getting to imagine with Taika [Waititi] and Chris [Hemsworth] and Jen [Kaytin Robinson], our co-writer with Taika, the kind of intermittent years between Dark World and here – or I guess Avengers and here. But it was, yeah, it was exciting also to get to kind of fill in the pieces of Thor and Jane's relationship as well.
Without revealing too much about the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, Thor: Love And Thunder features some flashback sequences that show us some never-before-seen moments from Thor and Jane’s romance. Along with all the ideas that the actors internalized and didn’t explicitly get put on screen, it’s wonderful to think about the stars and filmmakers working together to make the material both real and entertaining.
One aspect of Jane Foster’s mystery history that Natalie Portman wouldn’t specifically comment on, however, was the period between 2018 and 2023 – known on the Marvel timeline as The Blip period. Half of all living things in the universe ceased to exist during the time between the events featured in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame… but Portman wouldn’t say whether or not Jane lived through those years or turned to dust.
I postulated that The Blip could explain why Thor and Jane Foster have different perceptions of how long it’s been since they last saw each other in Thor: Love And Thunder (Jane wonders if it’s been three years, and the God of Thunder pins it at eight years, seven months and six days). Her response?
Possible…
It’s possible that Natalie Portman doesn’t know if Jane was Blipped or not, and doesn’t want to establish false canon – but I’d like to think that she’s more keeping that time period as vague as possible to keep the door open for future stories.
Starring Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale, Taika Waititi, and Russell Crowe, Thor: Love And Thunder will fly into theaters on July 8, and you can look forward to even more from CinemaBlend’s interviews with the star-studded cast in the days ahead (tickets are on sale now). To keep track of everything MCU-related that is on the way, check out our Upcoming Marvel Movies and Upcoming Marvel TV guides.
