Chris Hemsworth may have just been confirmed to be starring in Furiosa, but before he gets down and dirty in the Mad Max prequel, there’s the small matter of reprising his career-defining role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which was pushed back as a result of the studio’s Phase Four reshuffle and is now scheduled to hit theaters in February 2022.
The God of Thunder’s first two solo movies aren’t exactly regarded as high points of the MCU and rendered the title character as a self-serious and frequently dull hero, but Taika Waititi’s addition to the franchise was a breath of fresh air. Refitting Thor as the star of a neon-colored and irreverent intergalactic buddy comedy alongside Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, Ragnarok gained massive buzz from fans and rocketed to over $850 million at the box office.
Love and Thunder will start shooting in Australia early next year, and now the exact month has been confirmed as March. Of course, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is also filming in the same country, so presumably Waititi and his crew will swoop in shortly after Destin Daniel Cretton calls it a wrap on that movie, especially with the necessary addition of strict testing protocols to combat the threat of COVID-19.
Plot details are still virtually non-existent for Thor: Love and Thunder, but fans are already massively excited at the prospect of Christian Bale joining the MCU as the still unnamed villain, while there’s every chance Tom Hiddleston’s Loki could return from the dead alongside Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie and Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, who gets the chance to wield Mjolnir after returning to the fold after almost a decade away.