Marvel Just Announced Natalie Portman Is Picking Up The Hammer To Play Thor In Phase 4

Mjolnir is being passed to a new hero in 2021. On Saturday, Marvel announced at Comic-Con that Natalie Portman will play The Mighty Thor in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. Portman is reprising her role as astrophysicist Jane Foster alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, but this time her role will be significantly bigger than it was in the previous two Thor films she appeared in.

As usual, Marvel is keeping the exact details of the new film under wraps for now, but it does look like fans could be getting two Thors for the price of one. Hemsworth is on board, after all, but make no mistake, Jane is about to prove she's worthy of the hammer. Per Variety, Hemsworth passed Portman his character's iconic hammer on stage, and she told the Comic-Con crowd, "I always had hammer envy."

Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi explained to the Comic-Con attendees that the new movie will be based in part on Jason Aaron's run of The Mighty Thor comics in which Jane becomes worthy of wielding Mjolnir as the Goddess of Thunder, as reported by Variety. Additionally, it was also revealed that Thompson's Valkyrie will become the MCU's first LGBTQ+ hero. As ruler of Asgard, she'll be looking for someone to be by her side. Per iO9, Thompson teased, "As new king, she needs to find her queen. That will be her first order of business. She has some ideas. Keep you posted." Could one of those ideas be Lady Thor? Because the idea of Jane and Valkyrie ruling Asgard together is exciting, to say the least.

With Jane and Valkyrie set to take center stage in the next installment of the Thor franchise, the MCU is continuing to make its world of heroes more inclusive. And that's good news for everyone. It also means that characters like Jane have a chance to be the heroes of their own stories instead of simply supporting the male hero as a love interest as she did in the first two Thor films.

Portman wasn't in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok at all, and while there was a bit of Jane via voice-over in Avengers: Endgame, it didn't offer much in terms of an update about what she's been doing since her split from Thor. Now that she's about to pick up Mjolnir as a warrior herself, there's no doubt going to be a whole lot of gaps for the actor and Waititi to fill in together as they take Jane on this new journey.

In 2016, Portman told The Wall Street Journal that she was done with the MCU, as far as she knew. "As far as I know, I’m done," she said at the time. "I mean, I don’t know if maybe one day they'll ask for an Avengers 7 or whatever, I have no idea. But as far as I know, I’m done, but it was a great thing to be a part of." However, the studio clearly presented her with a story that was worth coming back for. Now fans just have to wait until November 5, 2021 to see what exactly that story will hold for The Mighty Thor, Jane Foster.