Thor: Love and Thunder Includes Touching Callback to Groot's Infinity War Sacrifice
Thor: Love and Thunder nods towards Groot's sacrifice in Avengers: Infinity War. *Spoiler warning for the MCU movie!* When fans see Chris Hemsworth's hero in the film, he's carrying Stormbreaker as his primary weapon. But, after a short introduction, he plants the blade at the foot of a tree to meditate. Groot, of course, sacrificed a limb to help create the mythical axe. The handle begins to sprout roots, and raises some questions about the sentient weapon. Throughout the film, it does seem to challenge Thor and his wandering eyes. Could this be due to Groot's original contributions? It's fun to speculate about.
When duty calls though, Stormbreaker appears more in its normal form. Still, with the Guardians of the Galaxy included in so much of the early moments of this movie, it's interesting to ponder how Groot reacted to seeing one of their old branches just hanging out feet away. Series star Chris Pratt talked about how different the Guardians can be outside of James Gunn's control with io9.
"Well, you know, there's James Gunn's Peter Quill and then there's the Peter Quill that has existed outside of James Gunn, which is in cameos in The Avengers and now the cameos in Thor," Pratt began. "And so truly the Peter Quill that I do when James is in charge is an extension of him. And the Peter Quill that I do when it's not him in charge is really kind of me let loose to do a little bit more than probably he would want me to do, in some way. So I guess the difference would be that."
"James Gunn has a [focus] for Quill that isn't on for Thor or for Avengers," Pratt continued. "And so we'll see how that plays out when it comes out. I mean, we're obviously dealing with the end of Avengers and where that left the Guardians of the Galaxy with Thor [Love and Thunder]. We'll see how that sort of transition works to set up [Guardians of the Galaxy] Volume 3."
Here's how Marvel Studios describes Thor: Love and Thunder: "The film finds Thor 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, who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, 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."
Did you like this subtle connection to Infinity War? Let us know down in the comments!
