The Untold Truth Of Thor: Love And Thunder

After the middling and underwhelming performance of "Thor: The Dark World" — both critically and financially — many wondered if the God of Thunder still had a major part to play in the MCU moving forward. Director Taika Waititi stepped up to the plate, held Mjölnir above his head, and proved he was indeed worthy to lead us to the promised land. He reinvigorated the Asgardian in the smash-hit "Thor: Ragnarok," helping it achieve a 93% critical approval on Rotten Tomatoes and over $850 million at the global box office (via Box Office Mojo). Lightning stuck twice, and Waititi returned for "Thor: Love and Thunder" — a film bursting with as much color, humor, and action as its predecessor.

The story behind the making of the fourth "Thor" film is as important as the adventure on screen, though. The inclusion of the Guardians of the Galaxy became a major talking point in the lead-up and required some discussion and alignment with another MCU filmmaker. Also, there was the hot topic around the introduction of the Mighty Thor and if Natalie Portman would be swinging in for the role. And lest we forget, there was the rumor that this film could turn out to be Chris Hemsworth's last appearance as the beloved God of Thunder. So let's take a look at the movie where everything is as fresh as the bright blue sky and discover the untold truth of "Thor: Love and Thunder."

All good things must come to an end, right? After having played Thor for over a decade, Chris Hemsworth might be joining the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans in the Valhalla for former MCU actors. He admitted in a WIRED Autocomplete Interview that "Thor: Love and Thunder" could end up being his last outing as the beloved Asgardian. "Well, the last I shot was 'Thor: Love and Thunder' and it might be my last ... I don't know," he said. "It was a wild and fun and wacky experience, as all Taika Waititi movies are."

In a later chat with Total Film, Hemsworth elaborated on his earlier comments and tried to calm the fanbase, stating how the decision to return as Thor largely depends on the quality of the script on offer. If the story becomes too repetitive, he wouldn't want to continue doing the same thing over and over again, preferring to exit before someone tells him to. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige chimed in and added that there are many other Thor storylines from the comics to adapt and plenty of opportunity for Hemsworth's character to develop in future films. We'll simply have to wait and see if Hemsworth returns or not.

After Thor joined the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of "Avengers: Endgame," there was always a good chance that Peter Quill and his ragtag group of misfits would show up in the next "Thor" film. Yet, there was a snag thrown into the mix: James Gunn was working on "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" while Taika Waititi put the finishing touches on his film, so they needed to have some kind of alignment to ensure there wasn't a gigantic Galactus-sized plot hole by the time Gunn's film released. Fortunately, the two have a friendly relationship, so this wasn't as big of a challenge as it could have been.

Waititi explained to Total Film (via CBR) that Gunn kindly assisted him with all things related to the Guardians. "[Gunn's] style is very different," he said. "He's very particular about his scripts, and about the way his characters speak. Obviously, I wrote the script, and I always knew we were going to kind of just hand those scenes to him." Waititi added that Gunn was helpful and would provide useful notes if he felt that some of the characterizations or lines were off.

Thor and Loki are like ice cream and life: they just fit together and are perfect for any occasion. While the audience has had the pleasure of witnessing the God of Thunder and his scheming, mischievous brother in more than a few MCU adventures, the two have been kept apart since the events of "Avengers: Infinity War." Team Thoki would love nothing more than to see the two dudes with godly attitudes team up again on screen, but Tom Hiddleston revealed to Empire (via Digital Spy) that perhaps it's best to keep the brothers apart since their journey has reached its natural conclusion.

"We talked about the 'Thor' movies as a family saga, and the diametric opposition between Thor and Loki and duality and antagonism being a book that perhaps should remain closed for the moment," he said. "We have explored about as much as we can about these two brothers." Hiddleston makes a compelling point, especially considering Thor and Loki's overall narrative tied up in a satisfactory fashion; however, as long as both actors continue to appear in the MCU, the likelihood of them crossing paths again remains extremely probable.

When it comes to spoilers, Marvel Studios keeps close tabs on Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo, ensuring the two actors aren't revealing more than they should during the press tours. However, Kevin Feige might need to send out the troops to confiscate Tessa Thompson's family's phones before the next release. Appearing on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and chatting to guest host Sean Hayes, Thompson explained how it was a relative of hers who was unintentionally responsible for leaking Valkyrie's new costume in "Thor: Love and Thunder" before it was meant to be revealed to the fans.

"I sent [a picture] to my stepmom," Thompson said. "She put it in like an end-of-year montage thing on Instagram, and somebody found it and posted it on the Internet. But I guess it's a big thing because it's my costume change, so I guess it was a spoiler, but she didn't know." She added it wasn't really a big thing for her and that she's just as bad at spoilers. Undoubtedly, the alarms must have rung in Feige's office after this interview.

Actors are interesting creatures. Some of them use the comics as their North Star, devouring every morsel of information about their characters for guidance. Others prefer to interpret the script as is and to not be tied down by lore or previous adaptations of their characters. In the case of Christian Bale, he took a complete left field in preparation for his performance as Gorr the God Butcher.

Speaking to Total Film, Bale admitted that he turned to Waititi first and foremost to find out what he wanted from his performance. However, he also looked toward the likes of "Nosferatu" and Aphex Twin's music video for "Come to Daddy" for some inspiration on how to approach the character. After taking a look at the comics, there was one concern that Bale had about Gorr, though. "I did make the mistake of Googling him and, oh no! He runs around in a G-string all the time," he said. "And I thought, 'They don't have the right man for that!' And then Taika quickly dispelled any notions of running around in that." It would have certainly been a cheekier version of the Gorr, that's for sure.

While Thor and Peter Quill's relationship might appear to be a little prickly on screen, the actors behind the roles have nothing but kind words to say about each other as performers and people. Chris Pratt raved to SFX magazine (via GamesRadar) about his experience shooting "Thor: Love and Thunder," admitting his admiration for Chris Hemsworth and his talents.

"I love being able to work with Chris Hemsworth," Pratt said. "He is like Thor in real life. He's the sweetest dude. Super-funny. Works so hard. It was great." He added that he enjoyed the opportunity to film the movie in Australia while reserving special praise for Taika Waititi's approach to filmmaking. With so much goodwill and chemistry between these individuals, it would be a crime if they weren't paired together again in the future. Perhaps a Disney+ buddy comedy between Thor and Star-Lord should be at the top of the agenda for the House of Ideas.