Thor: Love and Thunder Director Taika Waititi Asked Natalie Portman to Be in His Star Wars Movie

Taika Waititi was so impressed by Natalie Portman’s performance on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder, the filmmaker asked the actor to appear in his upcoming Star Wars film. The only problem is, Waititi forgot all about Portman’s role as Padme Amidala in Lucasfilm’s prequel trilogy.

“Basically I was like, a lot of fans miss Jane Foster, and people want to see her again. It just seemed like the perfect opportunity, because the character was so great in the Jason Aaron run of Thor,” the director said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.”Kevin [Feige] was already like, ‘I’d love to try and figure out a way to bring Mighty Thor into this film and bring Natalie back.’”

According to the helmer, Portman didn’t take much convincing to get on board despite never reading the comic in question.

“It didn’t take much convincing,” he added. “She had never heard of that run of the comic, so I just dropped off some comics for her…. Anytime you ask, how did we cast so-and-so? We offered them millions of dollars and they said yes!”

That’s when Waititi said he posed the idea of Portman joining the Star Wars franchise.

“Natalie said to me, what do you do next? And I said ‘I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing,” he concluded. “Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?’ She said, ‘I’ve been in Star Wars movies,’ I forgot about those ones.”

It’s unclear what exactly Waititi’s Star Wars film is going to be about, and the filmmaker says he wants to more separated from the Skywalker Saga than other films.

“That’s yet to be seen. I don’t know. I’m still writing. I’m still coming up with the ideas and storylining it and just wanted to make sure that it feels like a Star Wars film,” Waititi said in an interview with Screen Rant last month. “Because, I could say, “Oh yeah, we’ll just write any old thing and set in space and then put Star Wars on the front.” But it wouldn’t be a Star Wars film without certain elements and a certain treatment, so I’ve just got to make sure that it stays within that wheelhouse.”

Taika Waititi, who directed Thor: Ragnarok, returns to direct Thor: Love and Thunder. He also co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The film and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Jaimie Alexander, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Jeff Goldblum, and Vin Diesel.

Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters on July 8th.

What other surprises do you think are in store for Thor: Love and Thunder? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!