Coming in as a rapid succession as a series of lightning strikes, we’ve been gifted the full trailer to Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love & Thunder barely a month after the first teaser dropped.
However, while that teaser brought us up to speed with Thor and his mindset after his stint in the doldrums during the events of Avengers: Endgame, this trailer deals more with the overarching plot and finally gives us a proper eyeful of Thor’s new big bad, Cristian Bale’s pallid Gorr The God Butcher – not to mention Russell Crowe’s exuberant Zeus – as various story machinations have our heroes tangling with the Greek pantheon of gods.
Whether Watiti can pull off another eye dazzling, vibrant, fantasy/comedy like he did with Ragnarok remains to be seen, but in just over a month, we’ll find out if the fan-favorite director has managed to get lightning to strike twice.
Until then, let’s bring the thunder.
5) Greece Is The Word
Heavily hinted at but not fully shown in the teaser was Russell Crowe’s Greek god Zeus and thanks to a trip to Mount Olympus (possibly to warn them about the looming threat of a God murdering serial killer) we see Thor, Jane Foster and King Valkyrie indulging in a spot of fisticuffs. However, the two most noticable things that become apparent are thus: Crowe blatantly seems to be indulging in his past time of adopting magnificently wonky accents as he vocalises his character much in the same style as Harry Enfield’s 90’s kebab shop owning comedy character, Stavros – and Hemsworth’s gotten his bum out.
Both things can be easily explained away by the director’s formidable comedy chops (especially since we got a glimpse of the Hulk’s derriere in Ragnarok) and the fact that hes already promised that Love & Thunder will be Thor’s craziest adventure yet.
Still no hint if we get a cameo of jocular himbo, Hercules yet, but zoom in on Thor’s back and you’ll see that he’s had a tattoo imortalising his late brother Loki done.
Aw, bless.
4) Thor Loser
Last seen flying away with the Guardians Of The Galaxy at the end of Endgame, Thor has obviously had time to pull himself together and while there’s less of the intergalactic a-holes in this trailer, we do get more of the Odinson’s impressive work out regime as he goes from dad-bod to God-bod, including a tug-of-war with The Benatar and… some jumping jacks (maybe I shouldn’t have led with the more impressive thing), but despite showing off a range of new looks and transportation – monstrous pet goats Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder could end up being a couple of scene stealers if they’re even half as belligerent as their comic counterparts – the main focus here is his reuniting with a god-powered ex, Jane Foster and our blonde tressed hero isn’t exactly playing cool by correcting Foster on how long it’s been since they last met down the very day.
Obviously things are going to be awkward but the fact that she’s now worthy of the reforged Mjolnir has to be a major sticking point…
3) Ride Of The Valkyrie
Anyone afraid that Tessa Thompson’s newly crowned King of Asgard was going to spend the movie sitting on her duff and moodily governing the day to day rule of her kingdom can now rejoice as the trailer reveals a far more active role for Valkyrie; aka. Scrapper 142. Shown whizzing around on her flying horse and getting stuck in fighting Gorr himself while wielding what looks like one of Zeus’ thunder bolts, she seems to spark up something of a rapport with Jane Foster which has lead to some theorizing that maybe the “Love” in Love & Thunder may necessarily not be between Thor and Jane…
2) Foster Hero
The big change here is still the fact that Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster has claimed Mjolnir and taken the mantle and powers of the Mighty Thor, something that has the original Odinson more than a little rattled. However, adding to things seems to be the fact that this new Thunder God not only has the powers that Thor 1.0 possesses, but shes able to get that scarred old hammer to do a few more tricks that we’ve never seen before – like send out a wave of ghost hammers to take out multiple foes at once.
While we still haven’t seen anything about the rumoured adaption of the story that Foster has cancer, or even how she came about Mjolnir in the first place, it’s insanely hood to see her back and able to join in with the monster-smiting fun, rather than stand around and turning dials on a control panel…
Aside from this, take a closer look at the statues in the third picture and tell me if you can spot anyone familiar…
1) Gorr Fest
So here he is, Love & Thunder’s big bad Gorr; a being dedicated to slaughtering Gods from one end of the universe to the other.
While some have already pointed out similarities to either Lord Voldemort or the Addam’s Family’s Uncle Fester, there’s no denying that Christian Bale’s sinister do-badder has a creepy knight from the Crusades meets Nosferatu look that lends itself well against the colours the rest of the film is pumping into your eyeballs. Is he a comic accurate Gorr? No, he is not. But he’s still a noticable threat as he wields his sword (possibly All-Black the Necrosword) in his quest to rid existence of any and all gods in his way. Plus, it’s giving the director some funky looks to play with as a battle sequence seems to be set in a place where colour struggles to form and is nicely reminiscent of the impressive cinematography from the Hela vs the Valkyrie flashbacks from the previous film.
Whether it’ll take Thors from the past and future to stop him as in Jason Aaron’s superlative fun is unlikely, but we can spot goopy, black, symbiote-creatures doing Gorr’s will in New-Asgard during a battle scene. Does this mean that, aside from that coda at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, we finally have confirmation of Venom’s species in the MCU? Who the hell knows, but one thing is for sure and that’s Waititi’s recent claim that Gorr will prove to be Marvel’s best ever villain could be well founded.
Thor: Love & Thunder strikes cinenas on the 8th July
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