With Thor: Love & Thunder, Marvel's Asgardian hero will find himself in a place that no other MCU hero has before, a fourth solo film. It's uncharted territory and, as the film is still in its very early stages, there's still a lot we don't know. One of the biggest questions, as it so often is with comic book movies, is who the villain or villains will be. Will we see new characters or the return of old ones? Could we see the return of Thor: Ragnarok's Surtur? Clancy Brown says he'd be happy to return if the price is right.
We last saw Surtur in a knockdown drag-out battle with Cate Blanchett's Hela at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. The battle ended in the complete destruction of Asgard, and the seeming destruction of both combatants as well. But this is a comic book movie after all, so it's not like reasoning can't be contrived that would allow one or both characters to return in the next Thor movie. Speaking with ComicBook.com, Clancy Brown says he'd be happy to lend his voice to Surter once again, though his deal for Ragnarok did not include any movies beyond the one, so there's no expectation that Surtur will return. According to Brown...
That was a voiceover character pretty much. So, I mean, I would happily do it again, because it would be a mo-cap, and that would be fun, and a voice, but they didn't sign me up for any multi-picture deal or anything like that. If they call me up, and we can reach a deal, then I'll do it. If they call me up, and they don't want to pay me, then I won't. I mean, it's not that big a deal. It's not a real character to me anyway, Surtur.
Clancy Brown would have no issues returning to the Thor franchise, but he has the most pragmatic view of the whole thing that is likely possible. To him, Surter was clearly just a job, and little more. He did it because Marvel Studios paid him to do it, and if Marvel paid him again, he would do it again. He goes so far as to say Surtur was "not a real character" in his perspective. He showed up, read his voiceover lines, and collected his check.
It seems unlikely that a character like Surtur would return for Thor: Love & Thunder. While certainly, anything is possible since we don't really know what the movie will have in store, Thor: Ragnarok was a movie that took place out in the galaxy, and since the one thing we do know about Love & Thunder is that it will see the return of Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, then the new movie will take place on Earth in some significant way. That doesn't mean we can't have both, but it would seem a longer shot.
Thor: Love and Thunder will follow the next Spider-Man film on the MCU calendar, and as that movie is just now getting underway with filming, we should expect Thor to follow in just a few months. That means we will likely start to get some casting announcements in the near future, which will likely reveal exactly who the villains will be and how they fit into the story, which will ultimately be about Jane Foster becoming The Mightly Thor.
