The MCU is rounding a very important corner with several Phase Four films finally hitting theaters, one of which is the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, which just received its first teaser trailer today.
Now more than ever, questions about the God of Thunder’s storyline are cropping up, including how he’ll be worked into Phase Four and what exactly his fourth solo outing will look like. Last we saw him in Avengers: Endgame, Thor sported the most athletic beer belly known to man and, with the help of the Avengers, had finally put Thanos in the ground once and for all. His famous hammer, Mjölnir, was retrieved from the past, he had a new weapon in Stormbreaker, and for the first time in a long time, there were no peripheral obstacles vying for his attention. Thor was free to return to his duties as King of New Asgard and make his father proud.
However, as we saw at the end of Endgame, that’s not exactly what the God of Thunder had in mind.
Is Thor the King of New Asgard in Thor: Love and Thunder?
Ever since he was a boy, being King of Asgard was Thor’s one and only destiny. When we met him in his first solo movie as Prince of Asgard, he was fighting to prove his worthiness and earn the title he was destined to don. In his third solo movie, Thor: Ragnarok, his father Odin tragically died, clearing the way for Thor to finally take up the throne, but of course, things didn’t go according to plan. Upon Odin’s death, Thor and Loki’s older half-sister Hela was released from thousands of years of imprisonment and had her sights set on the throne of Asgard. In order to defeat Hela, Thor unleashed Ragnarok and allowed Surtur, the God of Flame, to destroy Asgard.
With Asgard now destroyed, Thor migrated what was left of his people to Midgard, otherwise known as Earth. They landed in a city of Norway and worked to rebuild Asgard there, which they eventually named New Asgard.
After the loss of his Mjölnir, his eye, his brother, and his father in Thor: Ragnarok, not to mention fighting, losing, and then fighting Thanos again in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, it’s safe to say that Thor experienced enough strife to last a lifetime, and that’s saying a lot for a guy who’s about 1,500 years old.
In the final scenes of Endgame, Thor contemplated his future, confiding in his ally and friend Valkyrie that he was not sure whether or not he wanted to be King anymore. As leader of the band the warrior goddesses sworn to protect Asgard, Valkyrie is more than capable of holding her own, and she proved that tenfold whilst fighting to protect Asgard from Ragnarok and battling Thanos alongside the Avengers, not to mention stepping in as interim King of New Asgard while Thor battled his sad yet comical bout of depression post Thanos’ Snap.
In Endgame, Thor says to Valkyrie, “It’s time for me to be who I am rather than who I’m supposed to be.” Thus, the title of King of Asgard was handed over to Valkyrie, which means that when we see Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder, it will not be as King of New Asgard, but instead just a god trying to find his place in the Universe.
What will happen to New Asgard? From the looks of Love and Thunder’s teaser trailer, it appears that Valkyrie has things under control. However, per the film’s official synopsis, that might not be the case for long.
