Thor: Love and Thunder - Taika Waititi opens up on Natalie Portman’s role; new still out

Taika Waititi is back in the director's chair for the new Thor sequel, titled Thor: Love and Thunder. The film will see Natalie Portman reprise her role as Jane Foster and will see her wield Thor’s legendary hammer. The director recently opened up about the characters' return to the MCU.

In conversation with Empire Magazine, Waititi talked about how Jane and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) reunited after eight years. Portman’s character was last seen in a major role in Thor: The Dark World. In the new film, Jane also takes on the mantle of a superhero, complete with a cape, armour, and hammer. Seeing the ‘love of his life’ after so long, and in such a different avatar than when he last saw her, leaves Thor shocked.

The premise of Jane wielding the hammer and obtaining Thor’s powers was explored in Jason Aaron's Mighty Thor comics, and Waititi reveals that they did not intend to go that route until they started working on the film’s story. He had thought of bringing back Jane but did not want her storyline to follow the same line as the previous films. The director said that having Jane be stuck on Earth with her science equipment while waiting for Thor to come back was boring. "You want her to be part of the adventure," Waititi added.

The filmmaker also added that he wanted to explore Portman’s comedic talent in the film as well, saying that the actress had a great sense of humour.

The portal also released a new image of Portman, where she is seen standing next to Thor, both of them caped and in armour. Portman is also seen with the hammer in hand.

Check out the image below:

In addition to Portman and Hemsworth, the upcoming MCU film also stars Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Jaimie Alexander, Pom Klementieff, Taika Waititi, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Jeff Goldblum, and Vin Diesel, among others.

Thor: Love and Thunder will be released in theatres on July 8, 2022.