How Thor: Love and Thunder Can Reconcile the MCU’s Most Inconsistent Character Arc

With Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Hemsworth has the distinction of being the first MCU star to headline four solo movies. Iron Man is gone and Captain America tapped out, but the Odinson is still ready to face whatever the universe throws at him. And it’s just as well. Between Thor: Ragnarok and the Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame, Thor may well be the most inconsistently written character in the MCU. Based on the recently released teaser trailer for Love and Thunder, however, it seems the sequel may actually be using Thor’s contradictory movie appearances to its advantage.

What’s next for Thor, and how can Love and Thunder reconcile what has felt like conflicting visions for the god of thunder? Let’s break it down.

Thor’s Conflicting Path in the MCU

2017’s Thor: Ragnarok really revamped Thor’s journey and his place in the MCU. Tonally, that film is a massive pivot from its two predecessors, leaning into the comedic side of the franchise while also growing much bigger and weirder. That’s the power of director Taika Waititi.

Ultimately, however, Ragnarok is all about forcing Thor to confront his destiny as the heir to Asgard’s throne. Thor deals with the destruction of Mjolnir, learning that the hammer is merely a tool that helped him control the true power within himself. By the end of Ragnarok, Thor has unleashed his true potential and followed in his father’s footsteps, sacrificing an eye to prove himself worthy to rule Asgard.

That reign sure didn’t last long, however. No sooner does Thor become king of a homeless people than Thanos and the Black Order come calling. Infinity War not only brings a swift end to Thor’s monarchy, it seemingly disregards Ragnarok’s message about Thor’s true strength being within himself. Instead, the film sends Thor on a mission to build a bigger, better hammer with which to smash Thanos. And when that fails, Thor retreats into a spiral of depression and self-pity. Even after the Avengers save the day in Endgame, Thor opts to leave King Valkyrie in charge of Asgard while he seeks a new path alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Why make such a point of establishing that Thor no longer needs Mjolnir in Ragnarok, only for him to immediately forge a new weapon in Infinity War?

Hemsworth’s emotional, pained performance in Infinity War is widely regarded as his best to date in the MCU. Still, it’s tough to watch Ragnarok and Infinity War/Endgame back-to-back and not feel like the films are having communication issues. Why make such a point of establishing that Thor no longer needs Mjolnir in Ragnarok, only for him to immediately forge a new weapon in Infinity War? Why set him up as king of Asgard and then immediately dismantle that status quo?

This isn’t the only example of a character seemingly being pulled between conflicting storylines in the MCU. It’s tough to connect the dots between the ending of Iron Man 3 and Tony Stark’s role in later Phase 3 films like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. And let’s not even get started on the discrepancies between the Wilson Fisk of Netflix’s Daredevil series and the Fisk seen in Hawkeye. But where we never got the Iron Man 4 the character probably deserved, Marvel Studios may be able to make sense of Thor’s arc in Love and Thunder.

Love and Thunder: Thor’s Search for Purpose

The Love and Thunder teaser trailer is clearly very conservative about what it reveals from the new movie. We don’t even see a glimpse of Christian Bale’s villain Gorr the God-Butcher, only one of the many victims of Gorr’s bloody crusade. But the teaser does make one thing clear – Thor’s inconsistent path in the MCU is going to be a major focus in the sequel.

Much of the footage emphasizes Thor’s desire to find peace and contentment after leaving Earth. Thor would have us believe he’s left his old life as an immortal superhero in the past. But already it’s clear Thor isn’t going to be able to happily settle down. Even if fate didn’t have other plans in the form of a sword-wielding god-slayer, Thor’s narration hints he isn’t fulfilled with a life without attachments or responsibilities. Deep down, he’s wrestling with the knowledge that he has a greater responsibility to Asgard and the universe at large.

Thor has a lot of unfinished business on Earth in the aftermath of Endgame. The return of Mjolnir and the rise of a new thunder goddess is only part of that. Thor abandoned his people, leaving them terribly vulnerable when Gorr inevitably comes calling. Like Peter Parker, Thor will have to embrace the idea that great power bestows equally great responsibility. That doesn’t necessarily mean Thor will reclaim his throne in the sequel (though Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie looks as though she’d happily trade places with him), but the sequel looks as though it’ll revolve heavily around Thor’s duty to his fellow Asgardians. He can’t simply abandon them to be slaughtered yet again.

The teaser gives us little insight into how Natalie Portman’s powered-up Jane Foster will factor into the plot, but it appears that Mjolnir repairs itself and chooses Jane as its new wielder rather than Thor. The hope is that this will allow the film to explore Thor’s connection to the mystical hammer and return to the idea that his real power is innate. Mjolnir has decided it no longer needs Thor, so he’s going to have to learn to finally move on, too.

Love and Thunder is heavily inspired by the work of writer Jason Aaron, who co-created Gorr and introduced Jane in her new guise as the female Thor. Aaron’s yearslong Thor saga is ultimately an exploration of what it means to be worthy. With any luck, the movie will cover similar thematic ground, forcing Thor to finally, definitively decide who he is and what he stands for.

Thor 4 and the Future of the MCU

In many ways, Thor’s quest for purpose and fulfillment embodies what many of the old guard heroes of the MCU are going through right now. As much as Phase 4 is about introducing new heroes like Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel and the Eternals, it’s also focused on what’s next for the veteran Avengers. Hawkeye showed us the passing of the torch from Clint Barton to Kate Bishop. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness show a Stephen Strange who’s become aimless now that he’s no longer the Sorcerer Supreme. Loki is about Thor’s trickster brother making an honest attempt at reinventing himself, only for that plan to go wildly off the rails.

Taken together, these movies and shows ask a very compelling question. What does a superhero do after they’ve literally saved the universe? Is there anywhere to go but down from there? Is it possible to retreat from the spotlight and retire peacefully, as Steve Rogers and Clint Barton have done? Or is the call to adventure always there? That’s a dilemma we expect will be at the heart of both Multiverse of Madness and Love and Thudner. Those sequels may give us a much clearer picture of how these established heroes will fit into a rapidly evolving MCU in the years to come.

For more on Thor: Love and Thunder, see how the movie is adapting a major Jane Foster plot point from the comics and learn why the MCU has a dilemma regarding its gods.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Author: Jesse Schedeen. [Source Link (*), IGN All]

Shop with us!