Thor: Love and Thunder kicks off production with local tribal ceremony

Filming on Thor: Love and Thunder is officially underway in Australia as of this week, and to get things started, the cast and crew participated in a tribal ceremony with local indigenous dancers. As it turns out, this is a longstanding tradition and custom for film and TV productions in Australia and New Zealand.

Star Chris Hemsworth shared an image of what things look like behind the scenes, as well as imparting some information about what the day of January 26 means to the people of New Australia:

The ceremony included Gamay dancers from the Gadigal and Bidiagal Nation and Maori dancers from Te Aranganui. Considering that director Taika Waititi is of partial Maori descent, it was quite fitting. (For a brief history on the Māori People Of New Zealand, check out this video — it’s quite enlightening!)

Who else is starring in Thor: Love and Thunder?

As is Marvel’s M.O., we have very little idea of what the heck the fourth Thor film is about, but we do know that the cast is stacked and epic AF. We’ve got Natalie Portman returning as Jane Foster, or more excitingly, as the female Thor! She made the surprise announcement during Marvel’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con panel to resounding applause:

We’ve also got Tessa Thompson returning as Valkyrie, to whom Thor handed over the responsibilities of King of Asgard while he went off on a mission with the Guardians of the Galaxy. This could potentially mean that the motley crew of Guardians will make an appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder. In fact, according to Australia News, Chris Pratt (Peter Quill), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula) and Sean Gunn (Kraglin) have all been quarantining in Sydney. And Dave Bautista (Drax) also confirmed that he was there on Instagram:

There are also reports that Matt Damon has arrived in Sydney and is quarantining with his family. He may reprise his cameo role from Thor: Ragnarok where he played an actor playing Loki in an Asgardian stage play.

Although you figure he wouldn’t quarantine with the family for just a cameo. Maybe he’ll have a bigger role this time around.

We haven’t heard anything about Christian Bale arriving in Australia, but we know he’ll be playing Gorr the God Butcher. He’s the villain, if the name didn’t give it away.

While Thor: Love and Thunder had to postpone production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s scheduled to storm into theaters on May 6, 2022.

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h/t SYFY Wire, Digital Spy