Thor: Love and Thunder is now in theatres and fans have been eating up the latest Thor adventure. This time, the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) sets off on a quest to kill Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) with the help of the Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Korg (director Taika Waititi). Along the way people live, people die, and some major changes are set up for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But when you leave the theatre, you still have questions — about how it ended, about where it’s going, and a whole lot more. We had those questions too and we’re going to do our best to answer them, with full spoilers, right now.
Is Dad Thor the new normal?
Thor: Love and Thunder ends with arguably its biggest surprise. After Gorr uses his one wish from Eternity to bring back his daughter, he asks Thor to take care of her after he dies. And he does. Thor basically adopts the child and, according to Korg’s voiceover, they travel across the galaxy together being called “Love and Thunder.” Adorable.
But, does this mean Thor now has a permanent kiddie sidekick? It sure seems like that. The comics have various different iterations of Thor where he has daughters, granddaughters, etc., with Brigid Thorsdottir probably being the most famous. Whether or not the MCU is following that track remains to be seen, but the idea of Thor becoming a two-hander certainly plays into Taika Waititi’s strong suits.
Subquestion: where exactly are they living? Out in space somewhere? Sure seems like it.
What happens when Zeus and Hercules go after Thor?
As we’ve already discussed, the first end credits scene sets up a future storyline where Zeus sends his son Hercules out to defeat Thor, once again reclaiming the superiority of the gods. In the comics, the pair have showdowns numerous times with numerous outcomes but in this instance, you have to assume Thor will somehow emerge victorious. Maybe not on an initial showdown, but even if it’s by reestablishing trust with the gods, there’s no way Hercules kills Thor. But again, the question is, when might this happen?
Will Valkyrie find love?
Though we the press made a big deal of the pre-release news that Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie would be queer in Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s pretty much a non-issue in the film. She does, however, reminisce about past loves and even flirt with one of Zeus’ handmaidens, but there’s never enough room in the story for her to find romance, especially with Thor and Jane’s love front and centre.
Our guess, though, is whenever it is we next see Valykire, now that she’s well established, we’ll get to see more of that side of her.
What happened when Jane first became The Mighty Thor?
In our minds, one of the bigger shortcomings of Thor: Love and Thunder is how the film jumps from Mjölnir beginning to assemble for Jane Foster to her being a full-fledged Thor. Valkyrie hints that she has seen Jane in action already but we never get to see that sense of shock and awe when the sick Jane realises her plan may have worked. Which would have been truly excellent.
This is also a good place to mention that though Jane is certainly worthy to be Thor, the inclusion of the scene of Thor telling Mjölnir to watch over her undercuts that a bit. It sort of makes it seem like the hammer is doing it because Thor asked, not because she’s worthy. And these two things together make it feel like Jane Foster got a little bit short-changed here, especially when…
Will we see Jane Foster again?
The second post-credits scene in Thor: Love and Thunder establishes that not only is Jane Foster dead, she’s in Valhalla. A deserved resting place. That said, especially because she’s played by an actress with the star power of Natalie Portman, we think — much like Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff — Jane Foster is gone for good.
Did Darcy say goodbye to Jane?
One of the more welcome surprises in Thor: Love and Thunder was the big-screen return of Darcy, played by Kat Dennings. Oh sure, she got to hang around WandaVision but now she’s back in the Thor films, where she belongs. Unfortunately, we see her before Jane becomes the Mighty Thor and never again, so there’s a good chance she never got to say goodbye to her friend and mentor. That’s sad.
What was Jane’s catchphrase?
All throughout Love and Thunder, Jane is trying to figure out a catchphrase. She goes with “Eat my hammer” a lot but, just before she dies in Thor’s arms, she whispers another one to him and he says it’s the best one yet. Of course, you can’t hear what she says on purpose, leaving it to the imagination, but we’d still love to know.
Doesn’t Eternity open up a bunch of plot holes?
Ultimately Thor: Love and Thunder ends up being about stopping Gorr from getting to Eternity, a powerful being at the centre of the universe with the ability to grant any wish. Gorr originally wants to wish for all the gods to die but then wishes for his daughter back and the movie ends. But the existence of this being is fascinating and a little confusing.
For example, wouldn’t finding Eternity have been easier for Thanos than acquiring all the Infinity Stones? Did he look into it? Maybe because Asgard had been destroyed before Infinity War, he knew he couldn’t get the Bifrost and gave up. But what about after? In Endgame, Thor had Stormbreaker and he knew the myth; couldn’t he have travelled there and asked for everyone to come back? Also, now that it’s granted Gorr’s wish, is that it? Can it grant more? So many questions, without any answers.
How much is a vacation to New Asgard?
Like, seriously. We know it’s not a real place but New Asgard becoming a tourist attraction is the coolest thing since Avengers Campus at Disneyland. Scratch that, it’s infinitely cooler. There’s a place called Infinity Cones, for crying out loud! It was such a cool, smart idea to bring into story and we just really hope that a) we get to see more of it in the future, and b) that Disney uses some of the film’s ideas in real life.
Could Thor and Loki ever reunite?
Since we’re talking about death a bit, let’s talk about Loki. The film jokes about him dying and we see that Thor has the big “RIP Loki” tattoo on his back, which is both hilarious and heartbreaking. That reveal reminds us that Thor misses his brother, and since we know there are versions of Loki out there in the multiverse, it seems very likely that Thor could eventually cross paths with a new version of his brother.
Will Thor and the Guardians meet again?
I can’t be the only one who, at the start of Love and Thunder, was a little let down the Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t play a bigger part. It makes sense of course. This is a Thor movie, and the Guardians have their own new movie coming, but everyone seemed to be getting along quite well. It would be very cool to see Thor appear in Guardians 3 or, worst case, a nice reunion somewhere down the road. We think it’ll happen in some form, eventually.
What was in the deleted scenes?
Many of the actors in Thor: Love and Thunder have discussed how much of what was shot didn’t make the movie. Of them though, most interestingly was that Christian Bale said he worked with both Peter Dinklage and Jeff Goldblum on the film, but it didn’t make it in. So we’re wondering, what scenes would Gorr have had with those characters, Eitri and the Grandmaster? Can we assume he killed them and now, by not putting that in, they can still come back? That seems like the most logical answer. Maybe we’ll find out when the Blu-ray hits later this year.
What’s going to happen in Thor 5?
The ending of Thor: Love and Thunder, as well as the end credits scene, makes it abundantly clear that Chris Hemsworth is not done playing the God of Thunder. Will the fifth film simply be Thor and “Love” travelling the galaxy, defending themselves from the gods? Could there be multiverse elements to go along with the rest of the MCU’s trajectory? Surely we’ll find out in the next few years.