After teasing her return in last month’s first-look preview, Marvel has fully unveiled Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor, Goddess of Thunder in the first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder.
Debuted during Game 4 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals, the new trailer reveals far more of the upcoming fourquel (a first for a Marvel Cinematic Universe solo series) from Taika Waititi. Picking up after the Avengers: Endgame, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is on a quest to find peace within himself, going from “dad bod to God bod) and joining the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord, Karen Gillan’s Nebula, Dave Bautista’s Drax, Pom Klementieff’s Mantis, et al). While he’s away, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is serving as Queen of New Asgard, a role she finds isn’t as exciting as it might have seemed.
It isn’t long before the two are thrust back into the superheroing they thought they’d left behind, as a new villain named Goor the God Butcher (Christian Bale) is… well, he’s butchering gods. Donning a ridiculous new battle armor, Thor looks to defend his people alongside a surprising ally who’s familiar yet wholly more badass than ever before: Jane Foster (Portman), back after an absence from Thor: Ragnarok (or eight years, seven months, and six days in story time) and wielding a reformed Mjolnir.
With Goor decimating entire planets with his cursed weapon, All-Black the Necrosword, the Thors, Valkyrie, and good ol’ Korg (Waititi himself) travel to Olympus to meet the Greek gods, led by Zeus (Russell Crowe). With a flick of the fingers, Zeus unveils Thor’s true visage — perhaps a bit more of it than intended.
Interestingly, there also seems to be a black-and-white element to the film, as if Goor’s destruction saps the very color from the universe. The battle scenes between him, Thor, and Valkyrie appear to be mostly grayscale (think Sin City, but with gods).
It’s all setting up for another epic, hilarious, masterful take on the comic book film from the great mind of Waititi, who also co-wrote the script alongside relative newcomer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Netflix’s Someone Great). Thor: Love and Thunder booms into theaters on July 8th, and you can watch the new trailer below.