At the time it was seen as quite a casting coup when Marvel Studios landed Natalie Portman for the female lead role in the first Thor movie, as the actress had just won an Academy Award for Black Swan and was highly sought after for a number of projects by several different studios. Unfortunately, her character Jane Foster didn’t really make much of an impact, and despite appearing in the first sequel, Thor: The Dark World, Portman didn’t reprise the role for Ragnarok.
Though fans didn’t take to Jane, it had nothing to do with the actress’ performance – the character was simply underwritten and came across as a bit bland. With that in mind, is there any chance we could see the talented star return to the MCU one day? It doesn’t seem likely given the direction the franchise has been heading in lately, but at the very least, Portman sounds open to the idea.
While chatting with Screen Rant to promote her new film Annihilation, she was asked if she’d be into returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to which she replied:
“I’m completely open to everything, but I have no news about that. (Laughs).”
While it’s nice to hear that Portman isn’t ruling it out, we don’t see this ever happening. For one, Ragnarok introduced us to Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, who’s a far better character than Jane and will probably be around for a while. True, Jane did eventually take over for Thor in the comics, but with the way things are going, it looks like it might be Valkyrie who eventually picks up Mjolnir instead.
Then again, who knows? After all, Gwyneth Paltrow made an unexpected return in Spider-Man: Homecoming, so seeing Portman show up in a future MCU film might not be so outside the realm of possibility. For now, though, we can’t imagine her finding her way back into the franchise anytime soon. And honestly, that’s probably for the best.
What do you think, though? Would you welcome another appearance from Jane Foster? Be sure to let us know in the comments section down below.
