For a film about an Asgardian superhero, Thor: Love and Thunder has a lot of romance movie in it. As part of Thor and Jane reuniting in the action movie, we get several rom-com flashbacks to their time as a couple. Turns out, these scenes were part of reshoots, at director Taika Waititi’s behest.
“That was all Taika. That was something Taika conceived of in additional photography and they shot after they shot principal,” Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, co-writer on Thor: Love and Thunder, told The Hollywood Reporter. “There was definitely a lot of back and forth on what happened. What do we want to show? It was not just conversations with Taika, but conversations with Chris and Natalie.”
Robinson explains that how much to show was a one of the bigger questions, leading to the conclusion that some proper background would be helpful for viewers and the characters. “‘How much do we want to show? How much of it is ex-girlfriend vs. Mighty Thor?’ Really trying to find the balance across the board of what is Jane’s story and what should be the focus?” she states. “Something that came to the surface was wanting to know more about the past of that relationship.”
It was a good choice, because those montages flesh out the MCU movie. Since Natalie Portman’s MCU character Jane has been missing from the franchise since Thor: The Dark World, we get to see why she left, and what she and Thor’s life was like behind closed doors.
On top of that, the scenes are charming segues with character beats not covered as much be the ensuing fight against Gorr, the God Butcher. In Thor: Love and Thunder, Jane becomes the Mighty Thor when she wields Mjolnir while dying from cancer. As a newly minted hero, she joins Valkyrie and Thor in fighting Gorr, who wants to use the Necrosword to kill all gods.
Scary stuff! You can check out Thor: Love and Thunder in theatres now. Have a look at our guide to Thor 5 for what might be next for him and Stormbreaker.