«Thor: Love and Thunder» is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor.
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- «Thor: Love and Thunder» is an upcoming American superhero film.
- It is based on the Marvel Comics character Thor.
- The movie is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
- It is intended to be the direct sequel to Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the 29th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
- The film is written and directed by Taika Waititi.
- Chris Hemsworth stars as Thor alongside Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Waititi, Russell Crowe, and Natalie Portman.
- In the film, Thor attempts to find inner peace, but must return to action and recruit Valkyrie (Thompson), Korg (Waititi), and Jane Foster (Portman)—who is now the Mighty Thor—to stop Gorr the God Butcher (Bale) from eliminating all gods.
- Hemsworth and Waititi had discussed plans for a sequel to Ragnarok by January 2018.
- Love and Thunder was announced in July 2019, with Hemsworth, Waititi, and Thompson all set to return, as well as Portman who did not appear in Ragnarok.
- Waititi wanted to differentiate Love and Thunder from Ragnarok, seeking to make a romance film and 1980s-inspired adventure.
- He adapted elements from Jason Aaron’s run on the Mighty Thor comic book, which sees Foster take on the mantle and powers of Thor whilst suffering from cancer.
- Jennifer Kaytin Robinson joined to contribute to the script in February 2020, and further casting was revealed later that year including the appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Production was expected to begin in late 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Filming ultimately began in January 2021 in Sydney, Australia, and concluded at the beginning of June.
- Thor: Love and Thunder is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 8, 2022.
- «Thor: Love and Thunder» is part of Phase Four of the MCU.
- Principal photography began on January 26, 2021, at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, under the working title The Big Salad.
- At the start of March, further reshoots were revealed to be happening “in the coming weeks”, and were said to have begun with Bale by the week of March 18.
- The film will feature the song “Rainbow in the Dark” by Dio, according to Wendy Dio, widow of band member Ronnie James Dio.
- In December 2021, Michael Giacchino revealed that he would be scoring the film; he previously scored Doctor Strange (2016) and the MCU Spider-Man trilogy for Marvel Studios, as well as Waititi’s previous film Jojo Rabbit (2019).
- Lego sets and Hasbro figures based on the film were revealed in February 2022 with additional Lego sets and Funko Pops revealed that April.
- Christian Bale had intially turned down the possibility of appearing in anymore 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 being impressed with Taika Waititi and the quality of his script.
- Chris Hemsworth, on his 8th time playing the character of Thor, achieved his biggest physique ever for this film – getting up to 105 kilos or 231 pounds for the role.
- His longtime trainer, Luke Zocchi said, “He is in phenomenal nick. He’s the biggest he has ever been. He’s the heaviest he’s ever been.” This extent of musculature required Hemsworth to eat at least 8 times a day during the entire duration of filming just to maintain all the muscle mass he had acquired.
- 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.
- 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.
- Chris Pratt, an action star himself, confessed to being awed by Chris Hemsworth’s physique in the film. The film represents Hemsworth’s biggest physique to date. Pratt said, “People are going to be astounded when they see what he’s brought for Thor 4. It’s actually next level. He’s ratcheted it up to another level. I was just in awe of his presence. He’s a man-God in real life. He’s really got guns (biceps). He looks GREAT!”
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) 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.
- The actors and director Taika Waititi had themselves blessed by the indigenous people of Australia before filming began.
- 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.
- Due to its trailer being released much later on, Thor: Love and Thunder has broken the record for the shortest gap between an MCU movie’s first trailer debut and its theatrical release with less than a two month gap between both.
- 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).
- The film was first announced on July 16, 2019, and the title was announced 4 days later on July 20, 2019, at the San Diego Comic Con.
- Thor wears a vest over a T-shirt with jeans. This is the uniform of Thunderstrike, a superhero who inherited Thor’s powers. The name of the character Thunderstrike came from the new hammer he was given.
- 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.
- 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).
- One of the few MCU films to have started a press junket without releasing a trailer prior.
- This film at that time, Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) were filmed at the same time. With Spider-Man: No Way Home filmed in both New York City and Atlanta, Georgia. Thor: Love and Thunder filmed in Sydney, Australia, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness filmed in England while The Marvels (2023) filmed in Jersey City, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Buckinghamshire, England and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, Turkey and London, England.
- Christian Bale and Russell Crowe also starred in 3:10 to Yuma.
- As with Avengers: Infinity War, Chris Pratt felt that having a supporting role rather than leading the film allowed for a more relaxed and quirky interpretation of Peter Quill/Star-Lord.Natalie Portman previously was in Annihilation (2018) with Tessa Thompson. Portman also was in Knight of Cups (2015) with Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett who played Hela in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
- This is the second time Matt Damon has played Loki, also cast in Dogma
- 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
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