The following deals heavily in spoilers for the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. If you haven’t see the new movie yet, and you are concerned about spoilers, back out of this now, and go grab tickets.
There was a promise contained in the closing credits of Thor: Love and Thunder that had a James Bond-like tease to it: Thor will return. This both makes sense, AND is a little surprising. For one thing, Chris Hemsworth is one of the last of the original Avengers still holding down feature films – with Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner reassigned to the Disney+ shows of She-Hulk and Hawkeye, respectively. But also, having played Thor in now seven feature films since 2011, one could understand why Hemsworth might be OK with hanging up his hammer, and exploring other options (like fellow Avengers Chris Evans, Robbert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson are doing).
So, now that we know Thor WILL return, let’s talk about when the character could re-appear. Also, let’s speculate on which version of Thor those words referred to, because it’s a coin flip between Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, or Natalie Portman’s The Mighty Thor, now that you know how her story ended. Knowing what we know about the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, let’s think about the places that the teased plot threads could surface.
Thor Could Fight His New Enemy In Thor 5
As we broke down in our analysis of the Thor: Love and Thunder mid-credits sequences, Russell Crowe’s Zeus remains angered by Thor’s attempt to kill him with his own lighting bolt weapon. He speaks of revenge, and plans to send his own son, Hercules (Brett Goldstein), to teach the God of Thunder a lesson. This sets up a natural confrontation between Thor and Hercules that would be worthy of its own feature, meaning Thor’s return could be saved for a standalone sequel Thor 5. If that’s the case, don’t expect that movie to be in theaters until 2025, at the earliest, because at the moment, no movement regarding Thor 5 has been announced. Also, Marvel has a number of already announced upcoming movies that should fill the calendar through 2024. Perhaps this will be clarified during the Marvel Studio panel in San Diego Comic-Con in a few weeks.
Thor And Loki Go Hand In Hand, And The God Of Mischief Has A Project On The Way
Thor: Love and Thunder held the distinction of being the first Thor project that didn’t include Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the hero’s menacing step-brother. Loki has been busy unraveling the strands of time in his Disney+ series (brush up on the first season in case it has been a while), and currently is busy filming season 2 of the program. Could Chris Hemsworth appear in season 2 of Loki? It wouldn’t be that far fetched. And because Loki has pulled back the curtain of the Multiverse, Hemsworth could even play a different version of Thor from another universe. We already have major questions about Loki season 2. Let’s just add “Chris Hemsworth’s potential involvement” to the list.
Thor Should Be In The Next Avengers Movie… Whatever That Ends Up Being
Our own Adam Holmes wrote about the potential construction of a Dark Avengers team, using alternate versions of the OG Avengers team members to create havoc in the MCU. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) already looks like the shadowy cousin of Captain America, and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) lets vengeance cloud her judgement and prevents her from being a pure, good Black Widow. If Hercules stood in for Thor on this team, the ensemble is quickly coming together, and Thor may have to show up to help take this new team down. Who would help him? Well, there are plenty of Young Avengers in the MCU now thanks to introductions in Phase 4. Seriously, the list of characters available to storytellers now is immense.
My best guess says Chris Hemsworth takes a break, recharges his battery, and returns in three years (give or take) for Thor 5. After all, Thor: Ragnarok came out way back in 2017, but the character played an integral role in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Either way, let’s hope the next Thor is better received, as Love and Thunder has a 68% Fresh grade on Rotten Tomatoes and only 82% from the site’s audiences. But that’s not stopping it from destroying at the box office all weekend, so we’ll wait and see what kind of legs the blockbuster enjoys.
