Now that’s what I want to see.

Going into this film, I was worried that Taika wouldn’t be able to emulate what he did in Ragnorak and I would be disappointed. Now, I have not a clue what I was worried about because I thought this movie was amazing and honestly, it was just what I needed. Obviously, many of you know neither Taylor nor I were huge fans of MoM and honestly the past few shows and films have been pretty dark. I needed a home run from Marvel and I also needed a bit of a break from that darkness, a break Ms. Marvel is already giving us. The film also successfully allowed me to marry the first Thor films with Ragnorak and provided a lot of closure that I wasn’t aware I needed. Love and Thunder did it all for me, so listen to our podcast to hear everything we had to say about this film. You can click the link provided to start listening right now, or click the button below to find your listening platform of choice.

So let’s start with talking about the Guardians. Naturally, I will give myself some credit here for the fact that I called they would only be in the film for a very short amount of time. It just didn’t make a lot of sense for them to stick around for longer and to be quite frank, I’m not sure what they would have truly added to the story if they had stayed in longer. Their short appearance allowed for some continuity from Endgame to here but also gave Thor the push that he would need through the whole film, so they essentially were Odin in this Thor film. I think it helped set the stage for the next Guardians project as well, so it just was extremely well done for both franchises to have this little merger and then go their respective ways.

Another thing I have to give myself credit for is that Lady Sif has returned! I am so excited about this for so many reasons. For one, the Warriors Three are dead (as the movie reminded us), so I was happy they brought back her character as she was never killed off officially. Two, I think she is going to fit in well with the new narrative of New Asgard with Valkyrie as King. But lastly, I think she and Thor should eventually end up together (should there be a romance in his future, if not then ignore this). Lady Sif was such a pivotal aspect of the first two Thor films and I think to pretty much be the only person really left now from those films present was imperative to making Thor’s story feel complete. She truly is the last living person he has from Asgard, so in the future, I would really like to see their relationship, whether romantic or not, play out more.

Before I get into Jane, since that is such a big section, let’s talk briefly about Darcy and Eric making little cameos. I’m really glad this was done as well since this helped with the connection between the first two Thors and the last two. For Darcy, seeing her was interesting as the last time she was sighted she had been in the Hex. I would love to know what she’s been up to since then, but I found it very fitting that she continues to stand by Jane’s side. Naturally, Eric always protected Jane so if he hadn’t been included in the plot (especially with the aspect of her sickness), it would have been very incomplete. I also figured Eric would appear in one way or another, since he was name-dropped in a Ms. Marvel episode that aired not long before this film came out.

Now that we’re past the parts and characters that I wanted to quickly bring attention to, let’s really get into the meat of this by first talking about Jane. It should’ve been no surprise to see her unless you’ve lived under a rock when all the trailers have been out and running. I was a little shocked they showed her sickness so early but as the plot progressed I fully understood why. You know, Jane was fairly bearable for me in this film (sorry she isn’t exactly my faves in the first two). I think Natalie Portman did a great job showing the two sides of Jane, the one that is dying and the one that is a superhero. I finally felt like she and Thor had real chemistry because she could now genuinely relate to him. And that ending, gosh was it perfect. I kept hoping she would die and no not for the gruesome aspect at all but because I think that needed to be the way her story wrapped up and what would allow Thor to move fully to the next stage of his life. I also didn’t see her being a permanent Thor, so it was really cool to see her character evolve and then fall apart, as Jane was always so put together and knowledgable. I liked that she got a worthy (hehe) story finally and she ended up in Valhalla.

I truly believe the beginning of this film was done beautifully, as it didn’t open with our heroes but instead showed our villain’s origins, similar to that of Black Panther. And I relate it specifically to Black Panther because I fully believe Gorr now walks in the wake of villains such as Killmonger, in the sense that the audience truly understands why they do what they do and can sympathize. He lost his daughter, and the God to which he gave everything laughed it off to his face. You could feel his anger and need. Everything Christian Bale did in each scene was better than the scene before, as he terrified me, yet had me feeling sympathy and even humor at times. I felt for him at the end when his final wish was just to have his daughter living again. And when you see Gods such as Zeus you really do understand why Gorr acted the way he did. To those who believe in higher powers, we put the person we believe in on such a high pedestal, that I don’t think we ever stop to consider if we met them right now if they would be the person we were taught to believe they are. I thought the message taught to us by Gorr in this film was extremely powerful and once again I have to applaud Christian Bale for another amazing appearance.

Since I already touched on him briefly, I want to talk about Zeus and his son. Zeus in the actual part of the film was meh, not like wasn’t played well meh but was just a terrible person meh. I love Russell Crowe so I think he did amazing and adding the Greek accent? Top tier for getting into character. Obviously, Zeus is the king of the Gods and is probably the reason half the Gods are only worried about themselves. What I really loved was that he and Thor are essentially the same types of Gods in their own respective areas (Greek and Norse mythology) and they actually include that a little in the film itself. To explain all of it, they pretty much highlight that Zeus was Thor’s mentor as a kid, which also shows just how prominent and long Zeus has been around. This being said, it’s why I was so shocked when I thought they killed him. But then the end credit scene shows him again and his son, Hercules, who has of course been rumored to be in the MCU for a little while. So are we getting a Zeus and Hercules vs Thor match-up in the next Thor film? I do think that’s what this set up, as Hercules doesn’t seem like a threat to the Avengers. I do think that Thor 5 will be quite a bit away, so I expect to see Thor again prior to that film coming.

Very, very quickly I want to get into Valhalla. For one, it is as beautiful, if not, even more, than Asgard and I never thought I would be saying that. But I didn’t think we would see it, let alone see our man Heimdall, which truly was another major closure moment. My only real complaint is that I felt there were some characters that should have also made a brief cameo in Valhalla. For a movie that starts out with recounting everything Thor lost, I fully expected once Heimdall appeared that it would pan to show Thor’s family, including possibly his brother (I know, I know). But truly I at least expected his parents, who both were confirmed to have gone to Valhalla…but this brings some other questions to me, personally. Now, I don’t know how much the MCU is going to go off of true lore, but now that Zeus is introduced it means there theoretically should be an Underworld. In the stories of the Underworld, there are ways to bring the souls of the dead back to the living. All I’m pretty much saying is that I wonder if we might have a possible way of seeing those who have passed to Valhalla alive again.

Before I finish this blog post I obviously have to talk about Thor’s character development. If you have listened to us for a little while, you know we have a lot of thoughts on how Thor’s development has gone. I personally continue to believe that Taika does a really solid job with Thor’s character development, even if he does make him a little more silly than he had been before. This film was about finding his purpose in life, while Ragnorak was very much about finding himself. I solidly loved the arc his character has been on and I’m really intrigued about where he would go in the future with his newfound purpose in life of being a father. I think this was the thing Thor needed the most in his life, someone he can love and will love him and can protect. Not to mention, the little girl is his actual daughter, which just made it 100% better. Thor 5 I hope will bring in their relationship so much more and show how the little girl lives with the power that she weilds. She ironically very much is like young Thor, so it will be a lot of fun to see where this is taken in the future.

I want to wrap this up with a small discussion on cosmic beings. They have, of course, been confirmed in the trailer, but now we actually witnessed one in real time. To me, this just shows that we are about to fight some massively powerful cosmic forces, since I’m not sure it can get any bigger than the cosmic beings that were depicted in the final scenes. It also confirms the Watcher does in fact exist in our MCU now, so I want to see what season 2 of What If? brings and if we will get some intersting overlap that we only got a little bit of before. Remember in the predictions we talked about how Thor may be the jumping off point to the next phases story, even if we don’t know it right away. I think the confirmation of these cosmic beings being alive and very much real, tangible people(?) is the door opening to that cosmic storyline that has been running smoothly under the Multiverse one. In fact, with the Watcher involved as well, I expect to see some insane overlap over the Multiverse storyline and the cosmic one in the future, but we will have to wait and see for sure.

Overall, I really loved this movie. I think part of it comes from the fact we have gotten some pretty heavy pieces of content lately as I said before, so it was nice to have these lighter moments. Of course, there were still a ton of moments that were pretty heavy and I think it had a really nice balance to it. Our next Marvel film won’t be until later this year, so there will be a bit of a break until then. As for shows, She-Hulk will be debuting in August and is 9 episodes long, so you know that means 9 weeks of us covering She-Hulk for all y’all. We won’t have an episode this week, but we do have one next week to cover all of the news coming out of Comic Con, so stay tuned, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Thor: Love and Thunder”, Tanya M Bhosale, Pop Culture Times

I’m not sure if I’m ready for a Loki-less Thor…or will it be?

The second film of the 2023 Marvel year is only a day away (or tonight if you have an early showing) and so you all know what that means; our predictions episode is live and ready for y’all to take a listen! You can listen on your platform of choice by hitting the button below or you can listen live by clicking play on the link provided. I have to say, while I love covering shows, there’s just something so exciting about going to the movies and walking out making lists of things I want to share with all of you. Pretty much, I’m extremely stoked for this, especially because Thor: Ragnorak was such an amazing film and really encapsulates a different time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m ready for that lighthearted fun to return in Love and Thunder so let’s get into all of what we think is going to take place.

So I need to get something straight, I don’t yet have any real feelings on Jane’s return but it is extremely important that we talk about it. For one, Jane is returning to the Thor franchise post Ragnorak, Infinity War, and Endgame, meaning she won’t be caught up on literally any of that. Thor has lost mainly everything and Ragnorak established a new group of Thor buddies, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. But what I really want to focus on is, well, why is she coming back? If you’re familiar with the comics, Jane being Mighty Thor is 100% accurate and not something just made up for the MCU. In the comics, she is actually sick with cancer and becoming Mighty Thor allows her to be, let’s say “okay”, for a little while. I think this is definitely going to be the track they take with her, since we haven’t seen her not as Mighty Thor once in the trailers. But how did she become Mighty Thor? How did she get Mjolnir and put him (semi) back together? By technicality, the person who lifts it would have the powers of Thor (remember our buddy Cap), so I get how, but how did she find it and what made her worthy? These are super important things I’ll need answered ASAP when the movie begins.

I’m also not convinced she’s a “replacement” of any kind or that we will have the passing of the mantle. This movie clearly doesn’t end that way, as Chris Hemsworth has been vocal about his want to stay playing Thor as long as he can. The film then can’t set up for him leaving and, to be fair, Natalie Portman has left the franchise before. I would not be shocked if her sick self is revealed at the end of the film and she sorta withers away. Too dark? Sorry everyone but that’s the theory I’m going with, as I really don’t see her being a continuous force in the Thor films moving forward. I think she is a cool character to explore for now, but we don’t really need her to continue in the Thor films permanently if Chris isn’t stepping down. She also hasn’t really interacted with any other Avengers, so I’m not sure how she would be tied to the bigger MCU, while Thor will be the last of the Big Three and could be the main leader moving forward. More on that a little later in the blog post.

If Jane is returning and we got Darcy in WandaVision, I have to wonder if our man Eric Selvig will be making his entrance back into the MCU as well. For those of you following Ms. Marvel, I spoke about this after one of the episodes name-dropped him. It’s been quite a while since we have heard anything about him, so I hope that we are bringing some of the old crew back together. He is obviously an extremely gifted scientist who played important roles in Phases 1-3, so I’m hoping he might make at least a small return in Love and Thunder.

Obviously, if you watched the trailers you know that our buddies, The Guardians of the Galaxy, are going to have some screen time in this film. I really don’t think they’re going to be around in this film for long though, as I firmly believe that Marvel is duping us with trailers once again. They put a lot of scenes of the Guardians in the trailers and I think those are likely the most we see of them. If you notice, all of those scenes are right around the same locations, so I really believe the Guardians will probably be around for the first 20 minutes and then go on their own way to set the scene for the third Guardians movie.

Let’s get into the big dispute coming these trailers and that is: Who is edited out of those scenes? I’m not entirely sure I need to go into what those scenes are, as they have been making their way around the internet since the first trailer drop. But I might be here about to burst some people’s bubbles because I don’t think it’s our lovely anti-hero Loki. I strongly believe that the person edited actually might be Lady Sif, making her reappearance since Dark World. We need to be real here, if Loki is in this, it’ll be a bigger reveal than that and I don’t see Jane being Thor’s endgame. Don’t forget, we got a little bit of a hint of romance in Dark World that essentially hinted at the fact that Sif may have ended up Thor’s wife had Jane not come in the picture. I think she would be enough of a big deal to keep her out, while also allowing for maybe a Loki to have a big reveal later on.

Since we are already bringing it up, we gotta address if we are going to get a Loki anywhere in this film. I’m so sorry, but I’m saying a Loki for a reason. I have a terrible feeling we won’t see T-Hiddleston appear but instead a blonde girlboss. Trust me, I get it, but when we look at this logistically it makes a lot of sense that it will by Sylvie, as we know her last location was at the end of time. She has the ability to go wherever she wants and it would be fitting for a Loki (who may not have had a Thor) to stumble into a universe that doesn’t have a Loki. Then, there’s the fact that our Loki is MIA in some random timeline, which will be addressed in Loki season 2. And lastly, what’s the best way for Thor to prove to Sylvie who he is? Well how about a massive back tattoo honoring his dead brother? Just some thoughts and theories, just doing my job.

I want to get back into one of the bigger people to appear in the film and that of course is Gorr the God Slayer, played by the amazing Christian Bale. A wise man once said you either die Batman or you live long enough to become an MCU villian, and that is just what he is doing. Now, we all know how creepy he is but what I really want to point out is a little bit more of his background, some of which we unfortunately won’t get in the movie. For one, Gorr’s whole problem with the Gods essentially boils down to the fact that he went to the God’s to help him and his family and they failed him. It is not clear just yet which Gods were the ones he went to, but either way this hurt him enough to want to kill off all the Gods. What we won’t get in the movie but is interesting to know is that Gorr’s sword actually is related to the symbiotes aka Venom. Like I said, we won’t get this story because Sony owns the rights to all that, which is super frustrating because that could’ve been an interesting connection to the new Spider-Man ending.

A possible major ramification for the greater MCU is the fact that we have spotted in real-time the head of the Watcher. This may or may not make confirmations for What If? a whole other story, but in all honestly, The Watcher isn’t the one I want to talk about. As I promised in the podcast, all five statues have names and I’m here to give them to you. The other four statues are Lady Death, the Living Tribunal, Infinity, and Eon. We’re going to start with Lady Death, who pretty much rules over, well death. The most interesting thing about her other than her self-explanatory name is that in the comics Thanos is pretty much in love with her and does all he does to impress her. Cute, right? The Living Tribunal is important for the sake that this would be actually his third (or forth?) appearance in the MCU. The first was in Loki as a severed statue head and the second was in one of the universes Dr. Strange and America fell through. The dude (thing?) is pretty powerful and is pretty much the Multiverses’ judge, jury, and executioner. He makes sure everything stays the way it’s supposed to, which is an interesting thing when we have been getting quite a bit of the Multiverse. Infinity is sort of known for being powerful, as she can pull a Wanda and manipulate and control reality, along with control time and space. Lastly, Eon is pretty much the oldest member of the family, literally. He has been around since time began and is massive in size. All together, these 5 pretty much make up a cosmic super group, so I’m pretty interested in what this is going to impact moving forward.

Lastly, I want to address whether or not Thor is going to usher in the next ten years. I am a firm believer that he will, as I said before, because he is the last of the Big Three and wants to be around. His trilogy, whether it was all good or not, is what really began and continued the Infinity Saga and so I think it is extremely fitting for this film and for his character to be the one to do it again. It all aligns in my opinion, so keep an eye out for some interesting repercussions from this film, even if they aren’t known for years down the line.

Honestly, I am beyond excited to see this film and to see some old friends again. I will be watching it tonight, so I can promise you all I won’t be doing any spoilers, but keep an eye out for my initial (again, spoiler-free) reactions, along with Taylor’s, on Twitter. Our full reactions episode will hit the scene on Sunday, so make sure you have your plans to see the film and be ready to listen to all our thoughts about what we saw. Next week, believe it or not, we wrap up Ms. Marvel as well, making this week and next some exciting weeks. Keep up with all of the amazing Marvel content in order to listen to and enjoy ours, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Thor: Love and Thunder”, Marvel