Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.
If there was once thing we were expecting going into Thor: Love and Thunder, it was lots of cameos. Taika Waititi loves filling his movies with surprising and funny walk-on parts played by famous faces, and that went double for his 2017 Marvel debut Thor: Ragnarok which was stuffed to the rafters with returns for familiar characters and hilarious appearances from shocking stars. Thor: Love and Thunder doesn’t disappoint on the cameos front either.
While we know there were a few major ones excised from the final cut, including Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster, Peter Dinklage’s Eitri, and Lena Headey as… someone, there are still plenty more cameos waiting in the film itself. From gods to ex-girlfriends to characters not seen in the MCU for years, the cameos just keep on coming across the films’ two-hour runtime.
Every cameo in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, explained
Here’s a run-through of every single cameo hidden in Thor: Love and Thunder, including some sneaky post-credits scene additions.
Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings)
Following on from her WandaVision comeback, Kat Dennings cameos as Darcy, who is with Jane during her chemo treatment in Natalie Portman’s introductory scene in the movie. Going by the fact that she questions whether Jane has told anyone about her cancer but her, we can presume that Jane and Darcy have remained close friends.
Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard)
The other member of the OG Thor gang likewise makes an appearance in Love and Thunder. Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) shows up via a video message Jane receives at her lab. It seems she enlisted Selvig to look into her illness, too, as he regrettably informs Jane that the chemo isn’t helping her condition and he has no other help to offer.
Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander)
Having been AWOL in Thor: Ragnarok, Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) returns in Love and Thunder. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) goes to her after she sends him a distress signal during a battle with Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). She survives the fight, but loses an arm in the process. At the end of the movie, Sif is shown training the children of New Asgard.
Actor Odin (Sam Neill)
One of Thor: Ragnarok‘s standout sequences saw a troupe of Asgardian actors recreating Loki’s death from Thor: The Dark World. Well, Thor: Love and Thunder pulls the same trick, except this time tourists visiting New Asgard are shown watching a play based on Odin’s passing in Ragnarok. Sam Neill, fresh off Jurassic World Dominion, returns as Actor Odin.
Actor Loki (Matt Damon)
Matt Damon reprises his turn as Actor Loki. As in Thor: Ragnarok, Damon’s casting is a meta reference to his role as the archangel Loki in Kevin Smith’s 1999 comedy Dogma. This time, Damon actually gets a second sequence, as he’s later seen trying to talk Thor into letting him and his pals stage a play based on Gorr’s kidnapping of the Asgardian children.
Actor Thor (Luke Hemsworth)
Chris’ older brother Luke Hemsworth similarly returns as Actor Thor, in another spot-on bit of meta-casting. Like Damon, he also gets to show up for two scenes as he’s with Damon when they approach Thor with their idea for a new play. This is actually Luke’s third time playing his bro’s role, as he recently starred in an Old Spice commercial (see above.)
Actor Hela (Melissa McCarthy)
The Asgardian acting troupe gets a new member here in the form of Melissa McCarthy who plays Actor Hela. McCarthy’s cameo has been one of Thor: Love and Thunder‘s worst-kept secrets, despite the Oscar-nominated actress denying her involvement. Her performance as an OTT evil witch feels like a test-run for her role as Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Director (Ben Falcone)
Once the play is over and the cast bow to the applauding audience, the director joins them on stage. This is actually Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy’s real-life husband and frequent collaborator, who’s most known for directing his wife in such movies as The Boss, Life of the Party, and Thunder Force.
Ninny of the Nonny (Taika Waititi)
Thor: Love and Thunder sees Taika Waititi return in front of the camera as well as behind it as Korg, but he also gets to pull double duty here as he cameos as a second member of the Kronan species. Specifically, he plays Ninny of the Nonny, a suitably affable Kronan god who Korg encounters at Omnipotence City.
Dionysus (Simon Russell Beale)
Another God who pops up for a minor one-joke appearance is Dionysus. When Russell Crowe’s Zeus taunts Thor, we cut away to an obviously drunken Greek God who cries out “Good one, dad!” In Greek myths, Dionysus is indeed the son of Zeus and is the God of Wine.
Wolf Woman (Elsa Pataky)
Korg’s montage about Thor’s love life includes a reference to a past dalliance the Asgardian had with a “wolf woman”… on top of a “woman wolf.” Although she’s unrecognizable under all the hairy make-up, Thor’s lupine lady friend is none other than Chris Hemsworth’s wife and Interceptor star Elsa Pataky.
Young Thor (Tristan and Sasha Hemsworth)
The Hemsworth clan cameos don’t stop there. The prominent role of Gorr’s daughter Love is actually played by Chris’ daughter India. Just so they didn’t feel left out, his twin sons Tristan and Sasha likewise featured, sharing the role of Young Thor in a flashback sequence.
Taika Waititi, Christian Bale, and Natalie Portman’s kids
Clearly, nepotism is the name of the game when it comes to this movie. Waititi, Bale, and Portman also brought their kids aboard the production, with the trio’s children appearing as part of the throng of Asgardian kids kidnapped and used as bait by Gorr.
Hercules (Brett Goldstein)
It wouldn’t be a Marvel film without some big-name cameos in the post-credits scenes. The first reveals that Zeus survived Thor’s attack and now he wants to get revenge on the God of Thunder. He sending his most powerful son to do the deed: Hercules, as played by Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein. Fans have been waiting to see Hercules in the MCU forever, so expect big things to come from him.
Heimdall (Idris Elba)
Thor: Love and Thunder‘s after-credits scene isn’t the jokey tag we’re used to, as it’s actually pretty moving. It reveals Jane’s arrival in Valhalla where she meets old friend Heimdall (Idris Elba), who welcomes her to Asgardian heaven and thanks her for looking after his son, Axl. This marks Elba’s first appearance in the MCU since Heimdall was killed in Avengers: Infinity War.
Thor: Love and Thunder is in theaters now.
