Taika Waititi has more ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ crimes to answer for after junked LGBTQ+ romance rumors

Although Thor: Ragnarok was showered with near-universal praise, one element that was criticized was the removal of any hint at Valkyrie’s bisexuality. Once upon a time, it looked like this was all set to be fixed in Thor: Love and Thunder when Tessa Thompson announced to the whooping Comic-Con crowd back in 2019 that the four-quel would see Valkyrie on the search for “her queen,” now that she was king of New Asgard. Well, needless to say, the absence of such a plotline was one of LAT‘s many drawbacks.

Fresh details on what may have been planned have now emerged, however, pointing to which familiar character from Thor lore might’ve become Valkyrie’s queen in earlier versions of the film. First of all, recently unearthed storyboards depict a deleted scene in which Lady Sif was rescued by Valkyrie from Gorr’s attack on New Asgard. Valkyrie would’ve then taken Sif to the infirmary, establishing a friendship between the two women.

According to scooper MyTimeToShineHello, though, this friendship would have developed into something more of a junked subplot, with Sif “supposed to be [Valkyrie’s] girlfriend and then queen.”

When speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 2022 about Valkyrie’s lack of love interest in Thor 4, Thompson admitted the team “had lots of conversations about it” but argued that making the character’s journey about “trying to learn how to love… herself” was preferable as Thompson even argued that defining her by a romance would be “minimizing her humanity” and equates to negative queer representation. “I think that’s just a stronger message, no matter what your orientation,” she said, on the importance of Valkyrie being single.

While Thompson raises interesting points, the fact that she proudly proclaimed one thing on stage at San Diego only for the finished film to depict something entirely different makes it plain that Love and Thunder underwent some huge story shifts during production. Sif becoming queen of New Asgard would’ve been a neat nod to her Norse myth origins, in which she is Thor’s queen, and finally given Alexander something more to do as the warrior. Sadly, a Valkyrie-Sif romance wasn’t to be, however. But, hey, if Taika Waititi really wants to make Thor 5 then that’s one thing he can belatedly deliver.