Small Details You Missed In The Dark Final Trailer For Thor: Love And Thunder
Hey, did you know that "Thor: Love and Thunder," the fourth installment in the Norse God of Thunder's solo MCU adventures, is coming out soon?
It's important to remind everyone, apparently, because that's exactly what Marvel is doing. At the dawn of July, the studio dropped a final trailer, just in case anyone forgot that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is slated to do glorious battle with a former Batman (yes, that means Christian Bale) on July 8th. The blockbuster, which also stars Tessa Thompson and Natalie Portman, has released trailer after trailer over the past few months with the same level of consistency as an arthouse film desperately afraid of underexposure. That's okay, though, because it looks great, and no one minds seeing more of Portman's ripped biceps.
As always, the footage is packed with little details. Some of it harkens to older projects, some of it just hints at what's to come. All of it promises a good film. To ensure that everyone goes in with the most useful information possible, here's the Looper take on some of the "Thor" details that are easy to miss, but potentially important.
Thor's pain finally won't be a throwaway joke
Rather contentiously, both "Avengers: Infinity War" and particularly "Avengers: Endgame" opted to drag Thor through every possible pain he could experience (and that's after seeing his entire world wiped out in "Thor: Ragnarok," plus losing each of his parents). Most of his remaining people were slain by Thanos (Josh Brolin) pre-snap, his friend Heimdall (Idris Elba) was unceremoniously murdered by Thanos, and his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was strangled by Thanos — the purple space dictator really had it out for the "Thor" franchise, for some reason — and then, the latter film proceeded to portray his journey through the aforementioned pain as a joke, because it's apparently hilarious to see someone turn to food and drink for emotional support.
This prompted a rather understandable outrage from fans. Fortunately, "Thor: Love and Thunder" doesn't seem to be playing the Thunder God's grief for laughs. Near the start of the newest trailer, viewers are treated to a somber slideshow of people that Thor has lost, including Frigga (Rene Russo), his mother. Over the course of these images, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) ominously commiserates with Thor, acknowledging the true depth of his loss. In addition to this, it looks as if Thor is desperately attempting to get his life together using mediation, a strict workout regimen, and other ostensibly solid coping mechanisms. Despite the fact that director Taika Waititi is known for trolling anyone and anything he possibly can, it appears as if he's tackling Thor's mental health with all the severity such a topic requires.
Love amongst Thors can be really, really cute
In previous trailers, viewers were treated to the fact that Thor is clearly still in love with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who is now the Mighty Thor with her ridiculously cool shattered Mjolnir. That, along with the title of the film, has long suggested that Thor's newest movie will heavily, or least partially, revolve around his swooning heart. In this, the most recent trailer, there's a quick glimpse of the two Thors holding hands. Well, sort of. They're actually doing the "holding pinky fingers" thing, which is arguably the cutest way to hold hands.
Since it's in the same black and white scale that the well publicized battle with Gorr is in, it's probably a moment of camaraderie between the two as they mentally prepare to fight for their lives. After all, anyone known as the God Butcher would probably stir a bit of tension in a pair of Thors, so it might simply be them reaching out for some small modicum of comfort. With that dark thought in mind, it's still an incredibly tender, loving gesture that's rarely seen in cinema, let alone being utilized by shredded Norse deities. It's just really, really touching.
Mighty Thor's lightning looks like Yggdrasil, the World Tree
Previous "Love and Thunder" trailers have notable played with imagery associated with Yggrasil, the World Tree of Norse mythology, and this final release again teases these connections. More specifically, there's a shot in the most recent trailer in which Mighty Thor, who's holding the lightning bolt of Zeus (Russel Crowe), looks as if she's sharing the bolt's power. She could also be slowly murdering all those people, who's to say? The camera angle viewers get is an overhead shot that depicts the bolt spreading through the crowd in an interesting pattern that kind of looks like the aforementioned tree, a detail that studious fans of Norse mythology have almost certainly already took note of.
To be fair, this particular resemblance could be entirely unintentional, but assuming that she's sharing power and not doing a murder, the symbolism would be significant. Yggdrasil is a magical tree that functions like connective tissue between the realms. One could climb the tree to get from Midgard (Earth's realm) to Nifflheim (Loki's original realm), provided that Ratatoskr was cool with it (Oh, you don't know Ratatoskr? That's a giant squirrel beast that guards Yggdrasil. Norse mythology is wild).
Aside from the squirrelly tangent, using world tree symbology as a visual unifier is, well ... it's not a deep cut, but it's incredibly interesting.