Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi’s fourth “Thor” installation in the MCU was one for the history books, and of course, it left viewers with huge questions by the end. Primarily - what’s next for these characters, new and old? CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor, Sean O’Connell, has some answers. Follow along as he breaks down exactly what happened between the God of Thunder and Gorr the God Butcher, what's up with that end-credits scene with Zeus and THAT character, and what all this means for Thor (and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe) moving forward.
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00:00 ending of Thor Love and Thunder is turning the MCU into quite the family affair.
00:04 So let's dive into that and talk about what it means.
00:06 - Do you ever feel lost?
00:08 Just look into the eyes of the people that you love.
00:11 - Not me.
00:14 - What?
00:15 - Just listening.
00:16 Hey guys, it's Sean O'Connell, the managing editor at CinemaBlend, here with an ending
00:26 explained video for the new film Thor Love and Thunder starring Chris Hemsworth, Christian
00:31 Bale and directed by Taika Waititi.
00:33 Now needless to say, because this is an ending explained video, we're going to assume that
00:38 you have already seen the latest MCU film Thor Love and Thunder.
00:41 Do not go forward watching this video unless you've seen the latest film, unless you just
00:45 don't care about stuff like major spoilers and us revealing what happens at the end of
00:51 the film.
00:52 There are some significant things in play, not just for Thor, but for directions that
00:56 the MCU can go moving forward.
00:58 And we're going to get into some conversations about what the bigger themes of phase four
01:03 have been so far and how I think they're going to sort of continue and develop and maybe
01:07 point to a bigger sort of team up film down the line.
01:11 And so now, assuming that you've seen Thor Love and Thunder, let's get into that ending
01:15 and what it means going forward.
01:16 - Kids get the popcorn now.
01:18 - For point one, I want to start with the fact that Thor sort of becomes daddy.
01:22 And I know that that's a meme of like Chris Hemsworth is kind of daddy, but Thor, the
01:27 actual character, the God of Thunder is becoming a father figure to a character named Love.
01:33 And I find this really interesting because the character is also played by Chris Hemsworth's
01:37 daughter in real life, whose name is India.
01:40 She's 10 years old.
01:41 So it is more of a family affair that Chris Hemsworth is getting some of his children
01:44 involved.
01:45 And so the twin sons actually stands in for young Thor.
01:49 I'm going to assume that it's in that montage where Thor is running through the years.
01:54 So it's really, really cool that Hemsworth, in addition to Taika Waititi and Natalie Portman,
02:00 and I believe Christian Bale, all got their kids involved in this story, probably in the
02:05 part where the Asgardian children are, you know, the kids in the cage who eventually
02:09 get broken out and help with the battle towards the end.
02:12 So where did this character come from?
02:14 As you guys know, once Gorr the God Butcher was able to use Stormbreaker to open up the
02:21 portal to eternity, they all enter into this placid looking location where it's very, very
02:27 peaceful and Gorr is able to make the wish that he's been striving towards the entire
02:32 film, which is the elimination of all the gods.
02:34 But he recants, essentially recognizes the error of his ways.
02:39 The pull of family becomes too strong.
02:40 The emotion overwhelms him.
02:42 Finn at that point is dying because of the sacrifices she has made to maintain her power
02:47 through Mjolnir.
02:49 And she knew that the cancer that was inside of her was going to overwhelm her, essentially,
02:54 at that point.
02:55 So what happens is Gorr essentially wishes for his daughter, his youngest daughter who
02:59 he lost at the beginning of the film, to be resurrected.
03:02 And noticing that bit of sacrifice, Thor agrees to take on this character.
03:07 We call her Love because towards the end of the film, as we realize that Thor is essentially
03:12 serving as a father figure to her, she is referred to as the love to his thunder and
03:17 the two of them sort of storm off onto their own adventure.
03:20 At the very least, we know that Love, this character that we're referring to as Love,
03:25 has some really interesting powers.
03:26 And we didn't really get to see the full extent of what she's capable of, but because she
03:30 was created by eternity, there's really no end to the number of things that she could
03:34 possibly be able to do.
03:35 And I think it all but guarantees that we're going to get another Thor movie that shows
03:40 her possibilities and the way that she's teaming with Thor to pull off whatever it is they're
03:44 going off to do at the very end of this movie.
03:46 One of the things I find really interesting is the way that this is sort of furthering
03:49 something that we're seeing a lot in Phase Four, which is a major established, significant
03:54 MCU character being paired with a younger version of almost themselves as a mentee type
04:01 of role, whether it be a Hawkeye, Clint Barton taking on Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld
04:09 in the Hawkeye television series.
04:11 We know that Kamala Khan is going to end up working with Captain Marvel, Brie Larson's
04:15 character later on.
04:17 And you can even, to a certain extent, call America Chavez a bit of a counterpart to Doctor
04:21 Strange in their adventure through Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
04:27 And even though Yelena is essentially the same age as Black Widow, it was again this
04:32 sort of Phase Four idea of a family member of some sort being a counterpart who has to
04:37 tag along with the main hero and then eventually branch off.
04:40 Now, where do I think that that's sending us?
04:42 I think it's important to sort of bring up that if all of these new characters are being
04:46 introduced through existing characters, a lot of these people, such as Kate Bishop,
04:52 America Chavez, Kamala Khan, well, Kamala Khan's been an Avenger, but they're all sort
04:57 of members of a team that has assembled and been formed through multiple characters over
05:01 the years called the Young Avengers.
05:04 And if I think we're going to get another Avengers movie at some point down the line,
05:07 it could be a Young Avengers that pulls this sort of ensemble of young characters together.
05:14 So there's a number of different ways that the MCU can go forward with these new characters
05:17 being introduced.
05:18 And I find it really interesting that India Hemsworth may one day pick up the mantle of
05:23 the mighty Thor and take over where her father left off.
05:27 Maybe it's a take on the new foe who we met in the mid-credits sequence.
05:30 What a classic Thor adventure.
05:33 Another thing that's happening in Phase Four a lot are new characters being introduced
05:36 in the mid-credits sequence, whether it be Harry Styles joining the MCU in Eternals or
05:41 even the most recent one where Charlize Theron showed up in the mid-credits sequence of Doctor
05:46 Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to finally play his onscreen love interest of Clea.
05:51 In this film, Thor Love and Thunder, we return to Zeus, who has been injured but not killed.
05:57 And thank God, because I thought Russell Crowe was a total blast playing Zeus, you know,
06:02 over the top, chewing scenery, bringing a little bit of the Tychus Pacific humor to
06:07 this world while also, you know, also bringing the weight of the mythology that comes with
06:11 sort of the Norse gods, which I thought was fantastic.
06:14 And to that end, we meet Zeus's son, Hercules.
06:19 So Zeus is essentially complaining about the fact that, you know, the gods exist and are
06:24 only really important to humans when we are in some form of trouble and that we only really
06:31 turn our attention to them when we need help, essentially.
06:34 And other than that, they are just often their own existence and not really paying attention
06:39 to the power and the might of the gods.
06:41 And you can tell that he's definitely angered by the things that Thor did to him and stole
06:45 his lightning bolt and sort of let it be known that Zeus isn't nearly as powerful as people
06:51 in that council were led to believe that he is.
06:54 And so he is going to send his son on a mission to go after Thor in what I would have to assume
07:00 is the next standalone Thor movie.
07:02 And one of the big reasons why I am so extremely excited to see Hercules join the MCU has nothing
07:08 to do with the character, but the fact that he's played by Brett Goldstein, the actor
07:12 who plays Roy Kent in the outstanding sitcom Ted Lasso.
07:16 And if you watch Ted Lasso, you know that Brett Goldstein essentially plays this gruff,
07:21 emotionless character who is the perfect foil for Jason Sudeikis' extremely optimistic Ted
07:27 Lasso.
07:28 And I just know that when you pair the personality that Chris Hemsworth brings to Thor against
07:35 what Brett Goldstein is able to do on screen, Thor versus Hercules is going to be a battle
07:40 for the ages and honestly can't get here soon enough.
07:43 - Here it comes.
07:44 - This ends here and now!
07:49 - The final thing that we have to talk about is the fact that, this bothers me a little
07:54 bit, but maybe there are no stakes in the MCU, right?
07:57 Like I know that that's a knock on Marvel and that no one's actually really dead.
08:02 And so while we saw Jane Foster sacrifice herself and give up the role of the mighty
08:07 Thor, she's welcomed into Valhalla by Heimdall, which again, expands into another realm of
08:13 the Thor universe and a place where we could continue to explore if we wanted to.
08:18 Now that might be the end all, like that could just be Jane Foster arriving in Valhalla.
08:23 We know that she died in battle, which was something that was discussed over the course
08:26 of the film.
08:27 And maybe that's it.
08:28 Maybe that was just Natalie Portman's send off.
08:31 But it also, I think, sticks a little thumb tack in the board and saying, if we needed
08:36 a way to bring her back, because this has been done in the comics before and feels very
08:40 comic-y, that Thor could go into Valhalla and essentially rescue not just Jane, but
08:46 also Heimdall and bring them back if he wanted to.
08:49 That sort of, again, negates the idea that these important characters gave their lives
08:56 in sacrificial moments.
08:58 I mean, Heimdall is the one who sort of sent Bruce Banner away before Thanos was able to
09:03 finish him off in Infinity War.
09:05 And here we just had this very emotional moving sacrifice by Jane Foster at the end of Thor,
09:09 Love and Thunder.
09:10 I'm choosing to believe that it's just their send off.
09:13 But knowing how many times that the MCU has brought Loki back from the dead, multiple,
09:18 multiple times, I also do believe that if those characters are needed for either a standalone
09:25 Thor movie or something in the MCU, Marvel sort of wrote themselves an open door that
09:32 these characters aren't exactly gone, gone, but just in a location that's hard to get
09:35 to but possible to return them from.
09:38 And bringing about Valhalla just as a point sort of further explores something that the
09:44 MCU has been doing in Phase Four, which is diving a little bit deeper into the afterlives
09:48 that are significant to the major characters.
09:50 So we saw the Egyptian form of the afterlife in Moon Knight that our character had to figure
09:56 out a way to return from.
09:57 Of course, we've seen the astral plane in Black Panther, and that could be a significant
10:02 part of Wakanda forever, which we're going to get to see in the fall.
10:05 And now here, the introduction of Valhalla.
10:08 So it is interesting that Marvel is not just exploring the cosmic side of it and then the
10:12 terrestrial side of it, but getting into more of the spiritual, I won't say religious, but
10:17 more of the spiritual side of it, of where your soul could potentially go after you have
10:22 left this plane of existence.
10:25 Deeper things, deeper things that Marvel isn't afraid to wrap their brain around and explore
10:29 as Phase Four continues.
10:30 Oh, God, we're going to die.
10:33 I kind of find it interesting that Thor Love and Thunder didn't connect to the larger MCU
10:37 stories that are in play at the moment and was able to be its own little standalone bit.
10:41 I know eventually we're going to get to some other MCU stories that will tie together into
10:46 whatever the larger story that Kevin Feige is trying to tell here, but this wasn't one.
10:50 So if you had any questions about how Thor Love and Thunder came to an end, let me know
10:53 in the comments down below and I will try to answer them for you.
10:56 In the meantime, Thor sort of gets put on a shelf because we don't know when we're going
10:59 to see Chris Hemsworth again, even though the ending of this movie really left a lot
11:03 of plot threads open for storytellers to continue to pick up and explore.
11:08 Because if you stayed through the end credits, and I know you stayed through the end credits,
11:12 it does say in text, Thor will return.
11:15 We just don't know when or in what context.
11:18 Could be a cameo, could be a supporting part, could be Thor 5.
11:21 As soon as we know, we will let you know.
11:23 There are two events that will be happening this year where I think we're going to get
11:26 more details about the future of, you know, not just Thor, but the MCU in general.
11:32 One is the Marvel panel that's going to be presented at San Diego Comic-Con, and then
11:36 the other is the Marvel panel that will be presented at Disney's D23 Fan Expo.
11:42 And you know that we're going to be covering all of those events here on CinemaBlend.
11:46 So for the latest commentary, keep it right here on CinemaBlend.
11:50 [music]