Warning: The following article contains spoilers from Thor: Love and Thunder.
It is needless to say that Thor: Love and Thunder packs in a lot of surprises, but the most shocking part was the closing minutes of the film where the story took a turn that MCU fans were so not expecting — Jane dying and Gorr wishing his dead daughter to life. Don’t deny it — you know you thought that Gorr simply wishing to save Jane instead would have been a better last-minute redemption arc for the villain.
Spoilers ahead.
While Gorr suddenly realizing the error of his ways after the Necrosword is destroyed is understandable, bringing his daughter back while he is about to die felt like a weird choice. Yes, she is his daughter and he mourned her loss — we totally get it. But shouldn’t he have wished to be with his daughter in the afterlife or wherever souls go after death in the MCU?
He is happy to leave his beloved daughter in the care of Thor — a trust developed rather quickly in a man, er … God whom he was busy trying to kill throughout the entire film. While villains having a change of heart is a common theme in the MCU, this shift in Gorr’s perception was too sudden. I mean bullets have left guns slower!
What would have been better was if Gorr had made the wish to save Jane from dying. Every Marvel fan expected that the re-appearance of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster meant that she is back in the MCU for good and perhaps the ill-fated love story of Thor will finally get a chance to breathe. The conclusion of the film, where Thor gives Gorr a pep talk on how he needs to choose love while Jane lays there dying without Mjolnir, gave very strong vibes that the God-killer might pull a complete 360-degree and wish Eternity to save Jane. But you saw what happened instead.
Well, we are sure the MCU had its reasons, but as they won’t be sharing them anytime soon, we have pieced together a list of plausible causes driving this plot twist:
Maybe Natalie Portman is done with the MCU?
Yeah, it hurts to even consider this but it is a possibility that we have to include. For those who forgot, Portman already left the MCU once before when Patty Jenkins — who had been hired by the studio at the actress’ request — left Thor: Dark World because of “creative differences” with Marvel, making the Thor star “deeply unhappy” as she allegedly said yes to the sequel because the Wonder Woman director was the one helming it.
What didn’t help was Portman, who is known for her strong roles, barely got any screen time in the film and what minimal presence she had was reduced to playing the damsel in distress, just so Thor could pull off his ultimate hero arc. While Portman never explicitly highlighted any of the above, she did share in 2016 that she was “done” playing Jane Foster — a rather final-sounding comment for a character whose story hadn’t been wrapped up.
What further cemented the possibility that she was really done was the fact that she didn’t appear in Thor: Ragnarok or the subsequent films and Jane’s relationship with Thor was turned into a running gag.
But while she did return for Thor 4, Jane’s reappearance felt less about cementing her position in the MCU and more like Portman doing Marvel a favor so they can wrap up her dangling storyline once and for all to allow Thor (and his romantic life) to move on. As stated above, Gorr wishing to save Jane would have made more sense but if the actress is truly done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his head-scratching decision somewhat makes sense.
Love’s revival is instrumental in setting up the Young Avengers
While many of MCU’s original superheroes are still present, it is known that plans of expanding this meagre number are already in motion with the introduction of a young team of superpowered beings known as the Young Avengers in the Marvel comic books. We have already met the likes of Kate Bishop, America Chavez, etc. In fact, Love and Thunder actually gave screen time to a ton of kids, including Heimdall’s son Axl, who has already harnessed his powers.
But he is not the only superpowered kid in the not-so-quaint New Asgard — Thor’s “adopted” daughter and Gorr’s daughter Love exhibited some pretty cool powers towards the end of the film. At this point, we can agree that she is not exactly Gorr’s daughter and more like the super-powerful Eternity reincarnated in the form of a human, seeing that her reflection resembles the eternal being itself. She shoots cosmic energy from her eyes and Stormbreaker is already her weapon of choice.
But while no such character was a part of the Young Avengers in the comics — and neither did Gorr’s daughter came back to life in the comic books — there is no denying that the storyline was given its unexpected ending to introduce Love. And with MCU’s current new superheroes-debuting spree, it is possible that the Young Avengers just landed their newest — and youngest — member.
Because MCU is not big on letting its heroes have love stories
Admit it — the MCU is not really fond of giving its superheroes a happy love story. Yeah, the old Cap got to live out the remaining years of his life with dear Peggy but it didn’t happen without the superhero experiencing exceptional hardships and living decades believing he would never get to live the life he dreamt of. Even though the impossible finally happened and we all lost our marbles at the sight of Steve slow dancing with Peggy, we shouldn’t forget that he was forced to live his dream life in hiding as the revelation of future Cap existing in the past would seriously mess up the timeline.
And anyway, his story is the exception and not the norm in the MCU. Pick up any hero — Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, etc. — and the chance at getting to live a happy love life is not something the MCU is comfortable giving them. And now, Thor has also properly joined the list, as, after all, that’s how the MCU works, right?
Perhaps Jane is here to stay?
Now, this one is somewhat far-fetched but hear us out as, despite the MCU and Portman giving us every hint that Jane Foster’s story is done, we would like to see the silver lining on the horizon.
In the comics, fallen heroes ending up in Valhalla doesn’t exactly mean they are dead, as many — including Thor — have returned from this mythical realm to battle major threats time and again. So, what is stopping Jane from doing the same?
Her presence in the Asgardian afterlife could also be an indication of a future where Thor will join her in Valhalla after he dies in battle as, after seeing Cap’s arc, it is evident that Marvel Studios is very much into the concept of ultimate happy endings. Actually, Jane ending up in Valhalla — even though she didn’t exactly die in a battle to fulfill the entry requirements — could possibly hint at a teeny-tiny ray of hope that the MCU is probably not done with Jane Foster aka the Mighty Thor aka Dr. Foster’s storyline.
Thor: Love and Thunder is currently in theaters.