Released: July 7, 2022

Directed By:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay By:   Taika Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Based On Characters By: Marvel Comics

Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe and a bunch of other actors.

Plot:  Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.

How did this movie do?
Budget: $250 Million
And it’s expected to exceed over $100 Million during it’s opening weekend

• Thor Odinson – first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 – reated by artist Jack Kirby, writer Stan Lee
  
  
• Gorr, the God Butcher – First Appearance “Thor: God of Thunder #2 – 2012
  • Gorr lost his entire family to starvation and was cast out of his village when he denounced the gods. After witnessing Knull fighting with a gold skinned god, he obtained the Necrosword from Knull, when he dropped it, and killed the gold skinned god after he begged for help. He vowed to kill the gods for not answering his prayers for help. With each god he killed, he grew stronger.  Was taken down by 3 Thors from different times (Young Thor, Avenger Thor and King Thor) and a facsimile of Gorr’s son that he had recreated.
  • After Gorr’s death, it was Gorr’s philosophy that the gods were unworthy that caused Thor to become Unworthy (which lead into Jane becoming The Mighty Thor). Nick Fury Tell’s Thor “Gorr was right”.
  • Gorr was eventually resurrected in the comics, because of course he was.
    
    
• The Mighty Thor – Jane Foster – First Appearance of Jane Foster “Journey into Mystery #84 – 1962 | As the Mighty Thor – 2014.
  • After Thor becomes UnWorthy and unable to lift his hammer Mjolnir (Myol-Near), it’s left on the Moon, where a cancer stricken Jane Foster is taken to it by Heimdall. She is able to lift it and becomes The Mighty Thor.  For many issues, her real identity is kept secret, even from the reader.
  • In the comic, every time Jane uses the Mjolnir (Myol-Near), it gives her Asgardian healing, removing all the “toxins” and “poisons” from her body including her Chemo and other cancer fighting drugs. This makes the cancer progress faster in her mortal self, thereby killing her quicker.
  • To save Asgard from Magog, Jane sacrifices the Mjolnir (Myol-Near), throwing into a sun, turns back into Jane and succumbs to her cancer. Odin & Thor are able to revive her.  She eventually goes on to become the new Valkyrie.  A Valkyrie, she helps Odinson become worthy again of being Thor.
    
    
• All-Black The Necrosword
  • Formed out of living abyss. The First necrosword, the All-Black, was created by Knull, an eldritch god of the void. When his realm of darkness was invaded by Celestials, he used the sword to decapitate one of the Celestials, which become Knowhere.
  • The sword is made from the same material Knull used to create the Symbiote race, the Klyntar (which Venom is a part of).
  • In the film Gorr get his powers from another source, as the symbiotes currently belong to Columbia Pictures (though one made it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). So basically, the Shadow Beats are supposed to be Symbiotes.
  • Wielders of Necroswords include Knull, Gorr, All-Father Thor (from the future), Galactus, Malekith (Dark World), Conan the Barbarian and Eddie Brock (Venom).
    
    
• Valkyrie – aka King Brunnhilde – is loosely based off of Valkyrie from Marvel Comics – First appearing in The Avengers #83 (December 1970)

• Thor’s t-shirt – Yggdrasil & Nine Realms on it. The bifrost symbol on his chest foreshadows the bifrost symbol on Eternity’s chest later in the movie.
• Thor’s Goats: Toothgnasher & Toothgrinder
• Thor’s Handshake: Snake that can’t be trusted (reference to Ragnarok story of Loki turning to a snake)
• Event Horizon & Interstellar Reference – Both movies fold paper over and poke a pen through it to explain wormholes.
• Ice Cream shop called “Infinity Conez” and has 6 candles (1 for each stone)
• Falligar, the Patron God of the Galactic Frontier – That scene is taken directly from Thor: God of Thunder #3 comic, published in December 2012.
• Nick Fury on Thor’s phone as Nick Furry, which is a callback to the short videos on youtube.
• Loki Reference – Although he doesn’t appear in any “new” scenes in this movie, he is referenced in a flashback and Thor’s RIP back tattoo.
• Brett Goldstein appears as Hercules
• India Rose Hemsworth, Chris Hemsworth’s daughter, plays Gorr’s daughter in the film
• Statues at the Gate of Eternity – UATU the Watcher, Death, Eon, Infinity, Celestials and the Living Tribunal (making his 3^rd reference in the MCU)
• 2 Celestials are at Omnipotence City (the Mad Celestial & the Celestial Gardner).
• Korg’s New Boyfriend Dwayne…as in Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson.
• Darryl, from the video shorts of Thor living with a roommate (2016-2018) returns as a tour guide in New Asgard
• The Cocktail & Dreams movie sign on Valkyrie’s Viking Ship
• Lots of Guns N’ Roses music (4 songs) and references including a Poster in a background shot and Hemdall’s son changing his name to Axl.
• In the Marvel logo at the beginning, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel could be seen.
• Jane Foster’s costume during the flashbacks included a Chest Buster from Alien.
• Bao from the 2018 Pixar short animated film.
• Jane refer’s to herself as “The Mighty Thor” which is what her comic title was during her run.
• Thor says it’s been Eight years, seven months, and six days since he last saw Jane. Darkworld came out October 22, 2013 which is just under 9 years.
• Sif losing her arm – In the Mighty Thor run, it’s Thor Odinson who loses his arm
• Thor’s jeans, t-shirt and vest outfit is a reference to Thunderstrike (another mortal who became a Thor for a while).
• Melissa McCarthy joins Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth and Sam Neill’s Asgard acting troupe to play Hela.
• Tristan Hemsworth, son of Chris Hemsworth, plays Young Thor.
• We did not see Jane did not go through the gates of Valhalla during the end credit scene. This is how Thor was able to bring her back in the comics.
• Zeus credit scene likely sets him up as the big bad for the next film.
• The Necrosword calls out to Gorr similar to how the Ebony Blade calls to Dain in Eternals.
• During Thor’s workout scene, he wears an old-school Avengers hat, with mighty crossed off and strongest written in (call back to Ragnarok…the Strongest Avenger)
• Thor riding Storm Breaker is a call back to Ragnarok (when Korg asks if Thor rides his hammer).
• Korg’s rock god is sitting on a thrown of scissors (call back to Ragnarok line by Korg)
  
  

• Christian Bale had initially turned down the possibility of appearing in any more comic book or superhero films after The Dark Knight Rises (2012), seeing the genre as uninteresting from an acting perspective, and especially finding the experience of donning the Batman costume to be a miserable one. He agreed to take part in this film however, after his kids begged him to take the role.
  
  
• Chris Hemsworth on his eighth time playing the character of Thor.
  
  
• The cast features five Oscar winners – Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, Taika Waititi and Russell Crowe – and two Oscar nominees – Bradley Cooper and Melissa McCarthy.
  
  
• Chris Hemsworth’s son Tristan plays young Thor in the film, though he is uncredited.
  
  
• So far, Thor is the only MCU character to have 4 stand-alone films.
  
  
• The title design was inspired by the “sword and sorcery” subgenre, which was especially popular in the 1980’s.
  
  
• Thor: Love and Thunder marks Natalie Portman’s official return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Jane Foster. After her experiences working on Thor: The Dark World (2013), Portman had decided to retire from doing any more MCU films. But when it was revealed she had a voice cameo in Avengers: Endgame (2019), this suggested Portman was game for another Thor movie. This was officially confirmed at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con when Portman walked on stage and director Taika Waititi handed her a Mjølnir prop, also confirming that Jane would become The Mighty Thor in this film.
  
  
• Christian Bale almost dropped out of the film due to scheduling conflicts. Bale usually prefers to have wider gaps between projects but this time he had only three days after finishing shooting a film in Los Angeles and starting the mandatory Covid-19 quarantine in Australia. It was his children who eventually convinced him to make the scheduling work.
  
  
• The scene where Korg (Taika Waititi) addresses the children whilst in a cave, about the deeds of Thor, is a tongue in cheek reference to another iconic Australian made film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), which has an almost identical scene about children hearing about that films central protagonist too.
  
  
• Set to be filmed in Australia, the home country of Chris Hemsworth and neighbouring country of Taika Waititi as well as Russell Crowe who are from New Zealand.
  
  
• This is the fourth time Matt Damon has played a version of Loki, after “Thor: Ragnorok” and “Dogma” and “Jay and Silent Bob: Reboot”.
  
  
• One scene has Thor and Korg stare at the body of a fallen god. This is a replica of a scene in the “Thor: God of Thunder” comic (Issue 3, Dec 2012), where Thor came across the same body.
  
  
• In the comics, Gorr the God Butcher’s powers are shared with the symbiote beings (Venom, Carnage, etc).
  
  
• It’s the twenty-ninth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  
  
• Chris Hemsworth calls Gorr his favorite villain in the Marvel Universe.
  
  
• Christian Bale is the second actor to play Batman to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after Michael Keaton (Adrian Toomes/the Vulture) in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
  
  
• This is the second comic-book feature for Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, both of whom had previously played a DC Comics character: Bale was Batman in Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy and Crowe was Jor-El in Man of Steel (2013).
  
  
• Taiki Waititi’s direction job on this film makes him the first person to direct more than one Thor film.
  
  
• Christian Bale and Russell Crowe also starred in 3:10 to Yuma.
  
  
• Thor’s goats Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher will appear in the film. These goats had appeared in both the comics and Norse myth of Thor.
  
  
• This is based on Jason Aaron’s Thor comics, where Thor encounters Gorr the God Butcher and suffers a crisis of faith, and where Jane Foster claims the Mjolnir hammer and takes the title of Thor. Both plotlines are separate in the comics, but are combined/linked in this film
  
  
• Heimdall has a son named Axel in the film. In the Norse myths Heimdall (under the name of Rigr) has three children who all founded different classes of society: Thrall (the first serf/slave), Karl (the first churl/peasant), and Jarl (the first earl/nobleman).
  
  
• There is a theory that Odin used the space stone to create the bifrost, so that would mean something with space stone tech could open the gate, hence, Storm Breaker is the key.