Award-winning actress Natalie Portman has had many memorable film roles throughout her career.
She’s played Queen Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel films, a ballerina on the verge of a mental breakdown in ‘Black Swan’ and the tragic Anne Boleyn in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl‘.
But her role in the upcoming fourth installation of the Thor films might be her most awesome one to date.
Return to the Franchise
During the Marvel Studios panel at this year’s recently concluded Comic-Con in San Diego, California, details about the anticipated film, ‘Thor Love and Thunder’ were unveiled. Present at the event were studio president Kevin Feige and New Zealand-born Taika Waititi, who will be the director of the movie set to be released in November of 2021.
Also at the panel were the Thor film series’ main cast members including the Norse god himself Chris Hemsworth as well as Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie. But what surprised fans most is the presence of Portman, who appeared in the first two Thor films as Jane Foster.
The actress was eventually almost fully written out of the comic’s on-screen adaptations. Her departure from the films has been rumored to be because of her unhappiness with Marvel’s dropping of Patty Jenkins, who Portman preferred as a director, for the production of the second film.
And come the release of ‘Thor: The Dark World’, the actress reportedly stated that she was done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
But Portman and her character are bound to make a comeback.
‘Female Thor’
Portman’s character Jane, who’s portrayed as a scientist in the earlier Thor films, will get an awesome character arc as the ‘female Thor’. The news was shared during the panel where Waititi handed the actress a Thor’s hammer prop. In reply, Portman made a comment about how holding it ‘feels pretty good’ and how she’s always had a little hammer in her.
According to Waititi, he was directing the last Thor film when he happened to read a 2014 comic storyline which chronicled how the god of thunder grew to become ‘unworthy’ of his hammer. The story also saw Thor pass on his powers to the character Jane Foster, who happened to be suffering from cancer. And thus, she became the new Thor.
Ladies in Full Force
The introduction of this twist to Portman’s character isn’t the only exciting thing that’s coming for MCU fans.
There’s the upcoming Black Widow movie which will see Natasha Romanoff in her first solo MCU movie. Scarlett Johansson will reprise her role as the Russian spy which she has been playing since ‘Iron Man 2’ in 2010.
Meanwhile, ‘Maleficent’ actress Angelina Jolie was also announced to join the cast of the 2020 film ‘The Eternals’. She will star in the movie together with comedian Kumail Nanjiani, ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Richard Madden and ‘Frida’ actress Selma Hayek.