With Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans now officially done as leading men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although there are still rumors that one or both of them will return in cameo form, Chris Hemsworth will have the distinction of being the first Marvel Studios superhero to lead four standalone movies when Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters in November 2021.
By the time Taika Waititi’s sequel arrives, the God of Thunder will have been on our screens for over ten years, and during that time the character has undergone a tremendous evolution. Hemsworth’s Thor was initially a stoic and somewhat somber prince who was biding his time to fulfill his destiny as King of Asgard, before Ragnarok reinvented him as a heavily-comedic presence, which ultimately led to a traumatized Thor packing on the pounds and drinking his sorrows away when we found him in Avengers: Endgame, before he ultimately gave up the throne and headed off into space with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
That’s quite the journey, and leaves plenty of options on the table for whatever direction Waititi decides to take Love and Thunder. We know that Natalie Portman will be returning to wield Mjolnir, and the director himself has promised that the movie will be even bigger and crazier than the already big and crazy Ragnarok, but when asked if he could reveal any story details, Hemsworth admitted that he hasn’t even seen the script yet.
“Lots of love and lots of thunder. You can expect that. I haven’t seen the script yet. I know they’re working very hard on it and pretty excited to bring you something pretty fresh and new again. But having left Endgame, where Thor was, we have a lot of room to move there and drastically change again, which is very, very exciting. But we start shooting that sort of mid-next year.”
Given the heavy amounts of improvisation that Taika Waititi encouraged among the cast on Ragnarok, Hemsworth likely isn’t missing out on too much having not seen the script yet. Expectations are sky-high for Thor: Love and Thunder following the critical and commercial success that greeted the previous installment though, and with the director admitting that he wouldn’t have returned to the franchise if he couldn’t put another new twist on the formula, there’s no way to predict just how wild the fourth entry is going to get.
