What Convinced Natalie Portman to Return to the MCU?

Thor: Love And Thunder Merch Shows Gorr Plus Character Descriptions
Natalie Portman speaking at the 2019 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Thor: Love and Thunder”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

At the end of Thor: The Dark World, it was commonly understood that Natalie Portman was done with Thor and the MCU generally. That made Avengers: Endgame all the more surprising when the Professional actress reprised her role as Jane Foster for the biggest film in the Marvel Franchise.  

Now that we’re several months out from Endgame and people are beginning to talk about Thor: Love and Thunder, we’re hearing more about what drew Portman back to the franchise. The first was likely Jojo Rabbit director, Taikai Waititi, who had this to say when asked about her return:

“[…]I didn’t have to do much. And, I think for her it was about making the character interesting. And I think especially when you’re playing ‘an Earthling who’s just into science’ in one of these big movies, it kind of gets a bit sort of, you know… After doing that for two movies, you want to do something different. I think for her, the thing that might’ve been attractive about this is being able to step it up and be a superhero. And I’d rather her do that than play a scientist. And it’s also from the comics as well. So it’s not something we made up.

Waititi, who is largely credited with breathing new life into the Thor franchise, was referencing the line of comics they’ll be using as inspiration for the fourth Thor film. Back in 2014, Thor, vol. 4 #1 began Jane Foster’s run as the Mjolnir wielding goddess and introduced an element to the character that piqued Portman’s interest in revisiting the character. 

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“It’s just very rare that these kinds of big entertainment films look at more serious, real-life issues,” Portman told Variety. “I really don’t know anything about it. I haven’t seen anything, but I’ve heard the same rumors as you have, and it’s exciting to think about.”

It’s unknown as to whether or not that element of the character will be addressed in the movies, but Waititi also told Variety the following:

“I think that’s a really powerful part of the books. I think it’s really cool that she’s fighting this thing and there’s two battles going on. Personally I really love that storyline, but whether it ends up in the film is yet to be seen.”

If Marvel and the director decided to include this particular element of the character in the movie, it would be quite a heavy subject. Unlike palladium poisoning, it was estimated by the National Cancer Institute that over 1.7 million new cases of cancer would have been diagnosed in 2018 in the United States alone. It would be quite interesting to see how Marvel tackles this topic. 

What do you think? Do you want to see Marvel include The Mighty Thor’s battle with cancer in Thor: Love and Thunder?

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Source: Variety

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