Although Thor: Ragnarok is featuring quite a number of familiar faces from Thor Odinson’s life, both from Asgard and Midgard (a.k.a. Earth), there hasn’t been much news regarding new characters. So far only Cate Blanchett has been officially added as the main villain (said to be Hela) but now it’s been announced that Creed star Tessa Thompson has been cast in an important role.
Thompson’s character will reportedly be Thor’s new love interest, which definitely throws a wrench into the works for his relationship with Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman. Deadline also reports that she’ll be "a kind of superhero" who will appear in other Marvel movies. So whatever goes down in Thor: Ragnarok, we can expect her to have some kind of presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future.
In Thor: The Dark World’s post-credits, Thor and Jane Foster happily reunited with each other, so it’s surprising to hear that Tessa Thompson’s character will be his new love interest. Thor mentioned in Avengers: Age of Ultron that Jane was continuing her astrophysics work in London, but there wasn’t any hint of their relationship being on the rocks. Evidently that wasn’t the case. If anything, we would have expected him and Lady Sif to get together, though it’s still uncertain whether she’s even appearing in Thor: Ragnarok. Regardless, in the midst of keeping the Nine Realms safe, it sounds like Thor will be growing close to this new player.
As for the superhero part of the Tessa Thompson announcement, it’s hard to tell who that might be going off the vague description. However, since Thor: Ragnarok will mostly be talking place away from Earth, the odds of her being an alien hero rather than a human one are more likely. Right now, a reasonable guess would be Valkyrie, who was rumored to appear last year. Besides being a key character in Thor’s supporting cast, Valkyrie has also been a member of the Defenders and the Secret Avengers in the comics. While the former group has become a street-level team in the MCU, the latter is certainly a possibility if more Avengers teams form at the end of Phase Three or during Phase Four.
Tessa Thompson was most recently seen playing Bianca in the Rocky spinoff Creed. Her resume also includes major roles in the TV shows 666 Park Avenue and Copper, as well as appearing in Selma as Diana Nash. She’ll soon play Charlotte Hale in the HBO series Westworld, and is staring opposite Natalie Portman next year in Annihilation. Along with Thompson and Cate Blanchett, Thor: Ragnarok will also feature Mark Ruffalo and Samuel L. Jackson as Bruce Banner/The Hulk and Nick Fury, respectively, in key roles.
Directed by Taika Waititi, Thor: Ragnarok will begin production this summer and fly into theaters on November 3, 2017.
