THOR
LOVE AND THUNDER

A SECOND THOR FILM FOR WAITITI

HOW THE FILM REACHED THE SCREEN

Taika Waititi officially signed on to write and direct a fourth Thor film in July 2019, and Kevin Feige announced the title Thor: Love and Thunder, with a release date of 5 November 2021, at San Diego Comic-Con that month. Natalie Portman was confirmed to return, with Jane Foster becoming a hero called the Mighty Thor, and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson was hired to work on the screenplay with Waititi in February 2020.

Principal photography began on 26 January 2021 at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney under the working title The Big Salad and wrapped on 1 June 2021. The budget was $250 million. Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad share the score, and Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” is used because the band is one of Waititi’s favourites.

LOUDER THAN RAGNAROK

WHAT WAITITI WANTED

Waititi described the approach by saying that “10-year-olds told us what should be in a movie and we said yes to every single thing.” He intended the film to make Thor: Ragnarok look like a “run of the mill, very safe film.”

Hemsworth looked back on the result in June 2023.

“I think we just had too much fun. It just became too silly.”

Chris Hemsworth, June 2023

THOR, JANE AND A GOD BUTCHER

WHO IS IN THE CAST

Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, with Christian Bale as Gorr, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Taika Waititi as Korg, Russell Crowe as Zeus and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. The cast also includes Jaimie Alexander as Sif, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgård as Darcy Lewis and Erik Selvig. Scenes featuring Jeff Goldblum and Peter Dinklage were cut from the theatrical release.

FOUR DATES AND SOME GAPS

HOW THE FILM WAS RELEASED AND WHAT IT EARNED

The film moved from 5 November 2021 to February 2022, then May 2022 and finally 8 July 2022. It premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on 23 June 2022, opened in Australia on 6 July and in the US on 8 July. It was not released in several Middle Eastern countries or in Malaysia and Brunei because of LGBT elements, and it reached Disney+ on 8 September 2022.

It opened to $144,165,107 in the US and went on to earn $343,256,830 there and $760,928,081 worldwide. The second weekend fell nearly 68%, to $46.6 million. A mid-credits scene shows Zeus sending Hercules after Thor, and a post-credits scene features Idris Elba’s Heimdall.

THE REWATCH

A 64% CRITICS SCORE AND A B+ FROM AUDIENCES

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 64% critics’ score from 449 reviews and a 76% audience score, and its consensus says the film “feels like Ragnarok redux.” Metacritic gives it 57 from 64 critics, and CinemaScore audiences gave it a B+. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called it “weightless, flippant, instantly forgettable, sparking neither love nor thunder,” while Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave it three stars out of four and called it a “victory lap” for Waititi’s earlier Marvel film.

The film received no Oscar nominations. Hemsworth won a People’s Choice Award as male movie star of 2022, among many nominations.

In the Marvel Marathon it sits in the MCU release order guide between Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. It sits between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the MCU movies in order and Marvel movies in release order guides. In the MCU timeline guide it comes between Ms. Marvel and Ironheart.