Natalie Portman Says She Had No Idea She’d End Up Playing Thor

Thor: Love and Thunder will see a big shift in the franchise’s status quo. The God of Thunder’s ex Jane Foster is returning and this time she’ll have some Asgardian powers of her own as she’ll be the one wielding Mjolnir. Fans were blown away when the announcement came at this July’s Comic-Con and it sounds like Natalie Portman had a similar reaction when she was first approached by Marvel about the project.

Speaking on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Portman admitted that she had no idea something like this was on the cards, though she was familiar with the idea of Jane becoming a superhero in Jason Aaron’s The Mighty Thor comics.

“I did not know. I mean I was aware that there was a storyline, but I didn’t know that they were actually planning on doing that in the movies.”

The big news was revealed to the crowd at SDCC by Portman making a surprise appearance on stage in Hall H, with director Taika Waititi handing her a prop of the mystical hammer to pose with. Portman told Fallon that this moment was pretty “nerve-wracking” for her, partially because even the prop Mjolnir turned out to be quite heavy.

“I didn’t get to practice ahead of time, so I picked it up and it was kind of heavy!”

Kevin Feige has since revealed that Waititi knew he wanted to get Jane back for Love and Thunder after he became hooked reading The Mighty Thor during the production of Ragnarok. At the beginning of 2019, Feige got Portman and the filmmaker together and explained that it took just that one meeting for the actress to agree to sign up for Thor 4.  Chris Hemsworth’s Odinson is still the protagonist of the movie, of course, but Foster may take his place in the MCU going forward. 

Thor: Love and Thunder is due to start filming in Australia next March before hitting theaters in November 2021.