Natalie Portman Breaks Silence on Marvel Return for Thor: Love and Thunder

Last night, Marvel Studios shocked their fans with an epic reveal of their Phase 4 plans, finally unveiling the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Two major announcements sit at the top of the biggest reveals of the night; Mahershala Ali’s impending debut as Blade, and Natalie Portman‘s return in Thor: Love and Thunder, making her the new wielder of Mjolnir.

Portman has finally spoken out on her return with a post on social media, praising her co-stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as well as director and writer Taika Waititi. After sitting out for Thor: Ragnarok, it looks like Portman is excited to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

Portman also shared love for co-star Tessa Thompson on her Instagram story, playing off of Thompson’s fan-favorite comments from the evening about a “King in search of a Queen.”

The announcement of Portman’s return to Marvel was stunning for numerous reasons, not only because she’s been absent for the last few films. Though her character Jane Foster appeared in Avengers: Endgame, Marvel utilized archived footage from Thor: The Dark World to include her character in the epic Time Heist.

But Portman, and other Thor actors, have made casual mention of not enjoying the filming process for those first two movies. In fact, it seemed like Hemsworth was on his way out until Waititi took over the franchise with Thor: Ragnarok, injecting new life and a huge sense of humor into the character.

But Portman herself expressed apprehension when it comes to effects-heavy films, dating back to her time working on the Star Wars prequel trilogy with George Lucas.

“As an actor, it’s like a completely different scale. Because when you’re making those movies, you’re working with so much blue-screen and so much fantasy your imagination has to be so much larger. It’s really challenging for me,” Portman previously said to Deadline. “I don’t feel like I’ve gotten it yet. I don’t feel like I’ve understood it yet. And so, it is something I’m fascinated by because I’m really challenged by it more than anything almost. Because when you’re in a room that looks like a room and has all the things a room has in it, you can interact with all that stuff, and all that stuff does what it does in life. You don’t have to imagine anything. You’re just in the emotional state of your character. And when you’re doing those blue-screen movies, you have to imagine everything outside and within. You have to create the whole world. It’s like being a kid again.”

Well, it sounds like Portman is ready to get into ass-kicking shape. We’ll see her wield Mjolnir as the new Goddess of Thunder when Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theaters on November 5, 2021.