The electrifying official trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder has landed online – and, as is customary around these parts, we’re here to break the film’s latest teaser down for you.
With Thor: Love and Thunder set to arrive in theaters on July 8, it’s high time we received another glimpse at the upcoming MCU movie. It’s nice of Marvel Studios to have obliged, then, with the latest Thor 4 trailer giving us our first look at Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher among many other things.
There’s a lot going on in the official Thor 4 trailer, so much so that we suspect you’ll have missed some pretty important moments, locations, and Easter eggs within its two-minute runtime. This is a Marvel Phase 4 project, after all, so there are plenty of MCU and comic book references that Marvel Studios could pack into the teaser and the final cut of the film.
It goes without saying, but you’ll want to watch the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer before you read on. We’re about to take a deep dive into the teaser to discuss those moments you might have missed on your initial viewing. So it’s best to check out the trailer first, as everything we discuss below won’t make sense without you doing so.
Once you’re good to go, here are eight things you may have missed from the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer.
1. Thor’s new home revealed
Remember when we saw Thor meditating under a giant tree in the Marvel film’s first teaser trailer? There was a lot of online speculation about where the Norse god had set up base post-Avengers: Endgame.
Well, the superhero movie‘s official trailer has confirmed where he’ll be based: Indigarr.
That name will be instantly recognizable to Marvel comic book fans. Indigarr is a desert world that debuted in Thor: God of Thunder #1 in November 2012, which is the first issue in writer Jason Aaron’s iconic comic series that stars the Norse god and Gorr the God Butcher.
Why is this significant? Apart from the fact that Gorr is the chief villain in Thor: Love and Thunder, the Taika Waititi-directed film has been heavily inspired by Aaron’s Thor comic run. With Aaron’s series being a chief influence during Thor 4’s development, it’s unsurprising that Indigarr features in some capacity.
How do we know that Indigarr is the planet that Thor has relocated to in order to find some inner peace? For starters, you can see the giant tree – which he meditates under – in the background at the 0:03 mark of the trailer. That’s the moment where Korg is telling Indigarr’s native population about Thor’s adventures as a space pirate. Oh, and the alien race Korg is speaking to just happen to be blue-skinned and wear similar clothing to the extraterrestrial race that resides on Indigarr in the comics. Therefore, Thor must be in self-imposed exile on Indigarr in Thor: Love and Thunder.
2. Drax’s invisibility skill fails – again
Not long after the trailer begins, we see Thor calling down lightning – using Stormbreaker – to grab his new blue and gold armored costume. Well, we’re presuming this is how he’ll get his new threads, as he’ll likely be wearing his Ravagers suit in the film’s early portion. You see him undergo a costume change at the 0:16 mark in the trailer, switching from his Ravagers outfit into his new attire, so clearly this is how he changes his wardrobe.
Look in the bottom right-hand corner, though, and you’ll be able to spot Dave Bautista’s Drax watching on from the shadows. We know this is Drax as, later in the trailer (at the 1:41 mark), we see him with the same weapon he’s holding at the 0:09 mark in the teaser.
Your invisibility skill (read: slow moving except you’re not moving slowly at all) may have worked (or, rather, not worked) on the Guardians in Avengers: Infinity War, Drax, but you can’t hide from us.
3. Dream, dream, dreaming
Is it possible that we’ll see Thor suffer from dreams, visions, or nightmares about Mjolnir in Love and Thunder? We certainly think so – and here’s why.
Around the 0:23 mark, we see Thor fighting some unknown enemies before he sees a reforged Mjolnir appear in front of him. Thor reaches out to grab it but it moves away before ending up in the hands of Jane Foster/Mighty Thor.
However, as Korg ends his Thor the space pirate story, we see the god of thunder in his new costume – complete with elaborate helmet – as he surprisingly says “Jane!?” upon the pair reuniting.
These two scenes are interesting because Thor is wearing his old costume when Mjolnir approaches him, whereas he’s in his new suit when he actually encounters Jane. Why would Thor wear his old suit if he’s a) wielding Stormbreaker, and b) updates his look earlier in the film after he comes out of retirement to presumably help the Guardians and Indigarr’s inhabitants?
Our view? Thor has a dream about fighting some enemies, seeing a repaired Mjolnir, and that Jane is now an Asgardian god who can wield Thor’s former hammer. Except it isn’t a dream and that these events actually play out later in the movie – hence why Thor is wearing his new attire.
This isn’t the first time that Thor would’ve had a dream/vision of the future. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor uses the Water of Sight to revisit the nightmare that Scarlet Witch installed in his head, including Asgard’s destruction and the birth of Vision. Maybe Thor’s many days of meditation pay off and allow him to have visions of the future without the Water of Sight? It would go some way to proving our theory right, so we’re sticking with that. Well, until the film is released anyway.
4. Another trailer, another Living Tribunal reference
Yep, the Living Tribunal (well, the omnipotent entity’s statue anyway) makes another appearance in a Marvel production.
We’ve previously seen Easter egg statues of the Living Tribunal in Loki and Doctor Strange 2, while the all-powerful cosmic humanoid was also set to feature in Avengers: Endgame before its cameo was cut.
Now, though, it’ll make its third MCU appearance in Thor 4. Skip to the 0:44 mark of the trailer, and you’ll see a monument of the Living Tribunal in the background as Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor performs a lightning-infused superhero landing. It’ll be pushing Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, and Benedict Wong’s Wong for ‘most MCU appearances’ soon if it keeps these Easter egg cameos up…
5. Thor and Jane’s relationship end date revealed?
We’re not sure when the pair actually broke up, but it seems that Thor: Love and Thunder’s official trailer (and the film itself) could hold the answer.
When Jane asks Thor how long it’s been since they last spoke, he humorously blurts out “eight years, seven months, and six days”. Initially, it sounds like a funny, throwaway line, but it can give us an idea of when Thor and Jane’s relationship actually ended.
Thor: The Dark World – the last Marvel film that Natalie Portman’s Jane appeared in – came out in 2013. That means it’s been nine years – in our world, at least – since Thor’s second solo movie was released.
However, in the MCU, there was a notable time jump between the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. There was a five-year, in-universe gap between the third and fourth Avengers films after Thanos wiped out half of all life in the MCU – aka the Blip. That meant that, by the time Endgame began, it was the year 2023.
The MCU timeline is all relative at this point – we still don’t really know where some films and TV shows sit on the main Marvel timeline, thanks to the events of Endgame and the non-linear approach Marvel is taking with its Phase 4 projects. But, if we assume that Thor 4 is set directly after Endgame, that would mean it’s set in 2023. Go back eight years and seven months, as Thor says, and you’d end up in the year 2015.
Given that Jane Foster didn’t appear in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok – Thor makes reference to the fact that it was a “mutual dumping” when he and Jane split up – 2015 seems like a good fit for when the duo ended their relationship. We could be totally wrong, mind you. Marvel Studios has made MCU continuity errors in the past – we’re looking at you, Spider-Man: Homecoming’s “eight years” moment – so Jane and Thor may not have broken up in 2015. Still, we’d like to think this is when they did for our sanity’s sake.
6. A Gorr origin switch-up
As we mentioned in our intro, we finally get our first official look at Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher in this trailer. However, his origins story will have had to have been slightly tweaked for Thor 4, given that he has ties to Spider-Man.
How? Well, in the comics, Gorr obtains his powers and weapon of choice – the Necrosword – inadvertently by way of Knull, the creator of the symbiotes. As Spidey fans will know, Venom is the by-product of one of these symbiotes attaching themselves to Eddie Brock. Marvel Studios doesn’t have the rights to Spider-Man or any of the characters in his universe, though, as Sony Pictures owns that Marvel comic IP.
Unless Marvel has secretly struck a deal with Sony to use Knull in Thor: Love and Thunder, Gorr’s supervillain origin story will have needed to be altered for the MCU movie. Based on the trailer, it seems he’ll get his powers from some dark dimension-esque area of the MCU. Either way, don’t expect to see a direct translation of his comic book journey here.
7. Mjolnir’s shotgun spread
With Mjolnir seemingly reforged by Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor, many of us had expected that Thor’s former weapon wouldn’t be able to split into multiple parts.
The film’s official trailer throws that thought right out of the window. At the 1:25 mark, we see Mjolnir’s multiple parts turn into a shotgun spread-style weapon, hitting multiple enemies after Foster swings the hammer towards some of Zeus’ metallic bodyguards. It’s a move that’ll raise a smile on every MCU fan’s face and has us wondering what else Mjolnir can do in its new state. Here’s hoping for more hammer-based surprises in the final film.
8. Parliament of Pantheons confirmed?
The final scene in the trailer is used to reveal Russell Crowe’s Zeus in all his glory. Oh, and to give Chris Hemsworth fans a lot more than they bargained for by, well, Zeus accidentally stripping Thor naked.
While this moment is obviously played up for laughs, the coliseum-sized location suggests that we’ll be visiting the Parliament of Pantheons in the MCU for the first time.
For the uninitiated, the Parliament of Pantheons is an intergovernmental organization of gods, who regularly meet to maintain the peace and status quo across the Marvel universe. Gods from all walks of life – Norse, Egyptian, and Greek to name three – convene here to discuss any issues they’re having, vote on topics, and more.
We’ve already seen an image that shows how Thor: Love and Thunder will tie into other gods and religious figures we’ve seen in Moon Knight and Black Panther. Add in the fact that Gorr is seeking revenge on every god in the MCU, it makes sense that Thor’s fourth solo movie would introduce a place where all gods can convene and discuss the threat of Gorr – even if some (cough cough Zeus) may not truly believe they’re in danger.
For more MCU-based content, read our ranking of every Marvel movie to date, plus which MCU villains we think are the biggest and baddest before Gorr’s arrival.