Thor: Love and Thunder Deleted Scene Focuses on Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was taken into a new path with Thor: Love and Thunder, the first full-fledged fourquel within the franchise. The film not only advanced the story of Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth), but it briefly moved along the adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy. While the Guardians were only very briefly involved in Love and Thunder, a newly-released deleted scenes adds even more to their debut. The AV Club recently released "Wasting Time", an alternate version of the scene where Thor is approached by Peter Quill / Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), who ask for his help in protecting Indigarr. When Mantis uses her mind-reading powers on him, she discovers that "many he loves perish, he feels their blood is on his hands."

Ultimately, what convinces Thor to drop his meditation and fight isn't his grief — it's his rivalry with Star-Lord.

"This way they'll make a statue of me when I save the planet," he taunts. "You stay there and don't be a hero!"

As Love and Thunder director and co-writer Taika Waititi revealed earlier this year, the Guardians originally did have a larger role in the film — but they still would not have been prominent fixtures in the project.

"The plan was always to have them in the beginning and then move on. Because they have their own movie," Waititi explained in an interview with Insider. "There was talk about having them come back at the end. The thing is that happens in every movie. No more. No more of the cavalry coming at the end. So we shelved that idea. We just wanted Jane to come in at the end." 

Thor: Love and Thunder finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he's ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor's surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher's vengeance and stop him before it's too late.

Thor: Love And Thunder will be released on Disney and Digital September 8, and 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD September 27.