Natalie Portman on Playing a “Newbie” Marvel Hero in Thor: Love and Thunder

Whosoever holds this hammer, if she be worthy, shall possess the power of… the new Thor? Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) thunders back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thor: Love and Thunder, and she’s wielding Mjolnir — the enchanted hammer once belonging to ex-boyfriend Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Eight years, seven months, and six days since splitting with the Asgardian Avenger after 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, Portman’s goddess of thunder shocks her superhero ex when she returns to stop the slaughter of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) as the all-new Mighty Thor. 

“It’s exciting to get to be a superhero,” Portman told Total Film about her return to the MCU as the “Newbie Thor,” adding, “there’s no guidebook that comes along and tells you how to do it.”

Portman worked out and bulked up to get into superhero shape for the role, showing off her physique as Thor’s swole-mate in the Thor: Love and Thunder trailers. According to Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige, “The only thing we assisted with was making the Mighty Thor a little bit taller (laughs). That was the only movie magic we used. Everything else was all her.”

“I trained for a long time before and during, and I was doing the whole protein shakes [thing]. It really helped prepare me for the level of action that we ended up doing,” Portman said of director Taika Waititi’s follow-up to 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. “We had incredible stunt doubles who did the really hard stuff, but there’s still a great deal of running and jumping and swords and hammer-fighting. It was definitely helpful to be strong. To have that weight of the cape all day, you want to have some upper-body strength.”

Per Marvel’s plot description, 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 (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Waititi), 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.

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale, Taika Waititi, Jeff Goldblum, and Chris Pratt, Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder opens exclusively in theaters July 8.