After months of relative silence on the MCU’s Phase 4, Marvel Studios dropped several bombshells all at once at last night’s San Diego Comic-Con panel. Among the upcoming films announced by Kevin Feige and his team was Thor: Love and Thunder, and as the final minutes of Avengers: Endgame seemed to imply, Taika Waititi’s highly anticipated sequel will apparently see the return of fan favorite Valkyrie.
As you likely recall, this year’s Endgame saw Tessa Thompson’s character take over from Thor as the new ruler of Asgard. So far, we’ve yet to find out how Valkyrie is faring as leader, but during last night’s Hall H appearance, Thompson teased the following developments:
“First of all, as king, as new king [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen. So that will be the first order of business. She has some ideas. I’ll keep you posted. And then, I don’t know, what’s cool about Asgard — as it has already been mentioned — Asgard is not a place but a people. So I think just reinvesting in her people, and a cool thing is to create a refuge for any person who might need it. That to me is the idea of a perfect Asgard.”
Though 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok offered hints that the MCU’s Valkyrie is bisexual, producer Kevin Feige recently confirmed that this aspect of the character will be made more explicit in future projects. In the same interview, Feige mentioned that we can expect to see some LGBTQ representation in next year’s Eternals, though it remains unclear which characters he was referring to.
In any case, between Thompson’s recent tease and the news that Natalie Portman is set to become the next Thor, Love and Thunder has certainly succeeded in getting the attention of the fans. And with Waititi back on directing duties, expectations are currently running high.
We’ll find out if Thor: Love and Thunder can live up to the hype when it arrives in theaters on November 5th, 2021, but in the meantime, Marvel’s Phase 4 finally gets going with the release of Black Widow on May 1st, 2020.
