Where Does Natalie Portman Want Female Thor Story to Go In 'Thor: Love and Thunder?'

For Marvel fans, it was one of the shocking moments of their lives when Taika Waititi presented Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, and revealed that she will be the next one to wear the moniker in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder movie.

Portman's character Dr Jane Foster was last seen in the superhero universe when Thor: The Dark World released in 2013. Her absence from Avengers: Age of Ultron was explained by sending her off to do some research. While the explanation for her absence from Thor: Ragnarok was that she was on Earth as the events unfolded in outer space. Portman's return rather suits the familiar territory she usually operates in. Independent women who kick ass. "They came to me with the fourth idea and said, you know, 'We have this idea, that was a storyline in some of the comics, where Jane becomes Lady Thor.' And I was like, this is very exciting. And also of course with Taika, and I love Tessa (Thompson) and Chris (Hemsworth) so much. So it's exciting to get to work with them again. And yeah, I'm very excited to wield the hammer," Portman told Entertainment Tonight.

Director Taika Waititi joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. He turned the Norse God's persona upside down by making one of the funniest and trippiest movies of the MCU so far. Waititi is known for having a unique sense of humour which is evident in the kind of movies he makes like Boy, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and TV shows like What We Do In the Shadows. The brought the same sense to Ragnarok and gambled on the comic timing of Chris Hemsworth. The result was the best Thor movie that was made thus far. Therefore when Waititi returned to direct the fourth Thor movie, fans were ready for something unexpected to happen.

When Waititi met Portman with the story in his mind, he did not have to do a lot of convincing. In an interview with Uproxx, Waititi said, "I think for her it was about making the character interesting. And I think especially when you’re playing “an Earthling who’s just into science” in one of these big movies, it kind of gets a bit sort of, you know… After doing that for two movies, you want to do something different. I think for her, the thing that might’ve been attractive about this is being able to step it up and be a superhero. And I’d rather her do that than play a scientist. And it’s also from the comics as well. So it’s not something we made up."

The idea of female Thor comes from Marvel comic book writer and artist Jason Aaron and Esab Ribic, respectively. In the comic books, after Thor is deemed unworthy of lifting the Mjolnir, no thanks to Nick Fury, an unidentified woman picks up the hammer and is gifted Thor's powers. Later it is revealed that the woman is Jane Foster. She has been suffering from breast cancer. Chemotherapy weakens all of Jane's systems, but the power transmitting from the hammer purges the toxins out of her body and give her all the powers of Thor to fight the big bad wolves of ten realms like Malekith the Accursed, Dario Agger aka Minotaur, and the Absorbing Man. When in Thor avatar, Jane gets superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability. She can also fly and obviously control lightning. But Jane as Thor has the special ability to change the trajectory of Mjolnir mid-throw. She can also make it revolve around and trap the enemies, the powers original Thor, the Odinson, never had. Since then the comic book version of Jane has teamed up with Doctor Strange in Secret Wars series. So there is a room for her to crossover in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She has also been part of the new Avengers consisting of Sam Wilson who is now the new Captain America, Doctor Strange, Odinson and Kang the Conqueror. This storylines also opens up a possibility of seeing Jane in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series on Disney+.

Portman says that she has no idea about the script written by Waititi. "I really don’t know anything about it. I haven’t seen anything, but I’ve heard the same rumours as you have, and it’s exciting to think about," she told Variety. But she is definitely rooting for this storyline to play a big part in Thor: Love and Thunder. "It’s just very rare that these kinds of big entertainment films look at more serious, real-life issues."

Waititi who has finished the script told the trade magazine that he personally loves that storyline but he is asking everyone to wait and watch if the storyline ends up being part of the fourth Thor movie.
“I think that’s a really powerful part of the books. I think it’s really cool that she’s fighting this thing and there are two battles going on. Personally I really love that storyline,” he said. “But whether it ends up in the film is yet to be seen.”

"We’re not sure if we’re going to do a complete lift of that whole storyline. These things change through the shoot and even when we’re editing sometimes,” he said. “Like, ‘Let’s get rid of that storyline where she’s got breast cancer. We’ll change it to something else, or maybe she’s fine.

Portman has faith in Waititi. She said yes to his script and returned after all these years. Waititi, on his part, holds the potential of balancing the real-life issues with big entertainment tentpole. With Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi shed light on the refugee and immigration crisis. The story talked about losing one's home, being traded into slavery and finding solace in people suffering the same fate as you. The movie elevated the message of Led Zeppelin's iconic Immigrant song. With his upcoming Jojo Rabbit movie, he is tackling the problems of white supremacy and racism in a way a brilliant political satire should.

Portman's change of heart is the result of Waititi's name being attached, a female-centric story, and the change in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Brie Larson's Captain Marvel dropped earlier in the year. The stand-alone Black Widow movie just wrapped up shooting while big names like Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan are leading The Eternals cast. “All of the supporting players in each movie — you’ve seen movies where they’re the leading players. So you really relate to all of the characters in such a deep way," praised Portman.