There’s one shot in the brief teaser that has been released for Thor: Love and Thunder that features Thor (Chris Hemsworth) standing next to his loyal friend Korg (Taika Waititi), with a suspiciously blank space to the left of Thor. MCU fans are now convinced that a character has been edited out, and speculation is running wild as to who it could be.
Theories range from it being Jane (Natalie Portman), and that they didn’t want to spoil the reveal of her as Mighty Thor at the end of the teaser, to Thor’s trickster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), although this seems unlikely. A meta joke idea that some people have made is that it’s Drax (Dave Bautista), who we all know can make himself invisible.
An idea that seems more likely is that it’s a new character from the comics who hasn’t fully made their way into the MCU yet. Comics fans are hoping that this will be Beta Ray Bill, one of Thor’s loyal companions. Bill is an alien being from the Korbinite race who has similar powers to Thor which augment his already super strong cyborg body.
The teaser shows that Thor/Mighty Thor somehow retrieves Mjolnir, which might leave Stormbreaker – the weapon that Beta Ray Bill wields in the comics – potentially available. Bill joining Thor to defeat Gorr (Christian Bale) is something that Marvel fans would definitely like to see. An alternative option from the comics is Hercules.
Given that reshoots were happening relatively recently, and how little we’ve seen from Thor: Love and Thunder so far, the possibilities are wide open for which character might be filling that wide open space.
If you’re brushing up before Thor 4 is released, check out our guide to Marvel’s Phase 4.