Natalie Portman excited to make Thor 4, “get jacked”

Natalie Portman is our now God of Thunder! She talks about what’s in store for Thor: Love and Thunder, and how she’s prepping for the role.

Last year, at San Diego Comic-Con before it was forced to go virtual, Marvel pulled back the curtain on the next Thor movie: Thor: Love and Thunder.

Not only is that easily the best title in the series yet, but the movie is going to shake up the franchise in some fascinating ways. Since the Thor we know, the one played by Chris Hemsworth, is currently traveling the universe with the Guardians of the Galaxy, someone else is going to step into his shoes. That someone is Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), his astrophysicist love interest from the first two movies.

This roughly follows what happens in the comics, but Portman stressed that Jane is more than just a placeholder. “She’s actually The Mighty Thor,” Portman told tennis great Serena Williams in a recent Instagram Live video. “The comics had the female Thor when Jane becomes Thor, and she’s The Mighty Thor.”

By the way, if you’re wondering why Portman and Williams are chatting, it’s because they recently started up an LA-based women’s soccer franchise together, but let’s get back to Love and Thunder. “We haven’t started [filming],” Portman said. “Obviously everything is weird because of pandemic time.”

That’s very true, although things in Hollywood are starting to rev back up again. Love and Thunder is due to start filming in Australia in early 2021, and Portman knows exactly how to use the time between now and then. “More time to get jacked. Which I have not. I’ve got the carbo-loading down, but not the exercise part…It will be exciting and I’m interested to see if I can gain muscle.”

Beyond the fact of a new Thor, which is huge, we still don’t know exactly what Love and Thunder is about, but we know it will once against be director by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi and that it’ll feature Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) as the new king of Asgard, at least while the original Thor is off finding himself or whatever he’s up to. “Major love for that woman,” Portman said of Thompson.

Thor: Love and Thunder is scheduled to release on February 11, 2022. It’s just one of several interesting twists Marvel is putting on its MCU movies at it moves into Phase 4. Color me intrigued.

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h/t Yahoo News