Natalie Portman used to be an integral part of the Thor film franchise until Thor: Ragnarok. She did not appear in Thor: Ragnarok or any Avengers film. She played the role of Jane Foster in the Thor franchise and has been a fan-favorite character since the first Thor film. However, she did not play an important role in later films of the franchise. And was even replaced by another female character in Valkyrie as the lead. There is no doubt that Natalie Portman is one of the best female actors in Hollywood, so this replacement left fans worried about her future in the franchise.
But these worries disappeared after the announcement of the fourth film in the franchise. Natalie Portman is set to play the lead role in the fourth Thor film titled Thor: Love and Thunder. Not only will she be reprising her role as Jane Forster, but she will also wield the powers of Thor as well. In this article, we will look at the past performances of Natalie Portman’s role and discuss what we know about her latest film as Jane in Thor 4.
Thor Film Franchise
The Thor film franchise has 3 released films and one set to release in July 2022. Natalie Portman appeared in the first two films and is set to appear in the latest film. But she did not make an appearance in the third film. We will look at all these appearances in this section.
Natalie Portman in Thor (film)
We see Natalie Portman in the first Thor movie for the first time. She plays a character named Jane Foster and is an Astrophysicist by profession. Thor and Jane meet for the first time when Odin strips Thor of all his powers and exiles him to Earth as a punishment for his reckless attack on the planet of Jotunheim. Odin also sends Mjolnir to Earth and casts a spell of worthiness around it. Thor can only lift it again when the weapon deems him worthy enough.
Natalie Portman’s character is in New Mexico to study a weather abnormality caused by Thor’s travel to Earth through a wormhole in reality. Jane is accompanied by her fellow scientist, who then helps Thor and thinks he is mad after listening to his story. Thor overhears them and discovers the location of Mjolnir but cannot lift it. Finally, he realizes that he is exiled and is not worthy and decides to stay on Earth and begins a romantic relationship with Jane.
Meanwhile, Thor’s brother Loki takes the throne of Asgard and becomes their ruler. But he plans on destroying Jotenheim, and Thor’s friends travel to Earth secretly to ask for his help to prevent this. But Loki knows about this plan and sends “The Destroyer” to Earth to finish them off. The Destroyer stops at nothing until he succeeds in his task and therefore defeats Thor and company. It is then going to kill Jane Foster when Thor offers his life to save Jane.
Ending Scenes of the film
Mjolnir deems Thor worthy enough at this noble action and travels to him, giving him his powers back. Thor destroys the Destroyer and travels back to Asgard to stop Loki. Finally, Thor bids his farewell to Natalie Portman and promises to return to Earth for her. At the end of this film, we again see Jane and her friends trying to find a way to travel to Asgard.
Thor: The Dark World
This film is released after the first Avenger movie, and we see Jane Foster playing an even more integral role. This film was set to be directed by Patty Jenkins, but she left the project due to creative differences. We see in this film that Odin’s father Bor fought with Dark Elves and stopped them from taking over the nine realms and trapping their weapon called the “Aether” inside a stone and hiding it for eternity.
While on Asgard, we see Loki imprisoned for his crimes and the Bi-frost under construction two years after the first film’s events. Jane travels to an abandoned factory where she discovers a portal connecting the nine realms due to a celestial event called Convergence, a rare alignment of the Nine Realms. She travels through the portal and inadvertently absorbs the Aether while disappearing from Heimdall’s vision which lets Thor know. Thor travels to Earth to save Natalie Portman and finds her, but Natalie Portman activates the Aether, letting the Dark Elves survivors know about its location. Thor brings Jane to Asgard, where Odin warns everyone of the prophecy about the Aether.
The Dark Elves attack Asgard to get the Aether and kill Thor’s mother, Frigga. Jane, however, survives, and the Elves retreat. Thor travels to the Dark Elves’ hideout to fight their leader Malekith with Loki and Jane. But his plan goes south when Malekith extracts the Aether from Natalie Portman by the elves and kills Loki. The Dark elves then travel to Earth to restore the Dark Elves to dominance by unleashing the Aether at the center of the Convergence in Greenwich.
Final Scenes
Thor then heads to Earth accompanied by Jane and fights Malekith while traveling through several portals in different realms, ultimately defeating Maelkith. He then refuses Odin’s offer to rule the Nine Realms and travels to Earth, reuniting with Natalie Portman at the end.
Thor: Ragnarok
Jane did not appear in this film as the film director Taika Watiti and Kevin Fiege explained that this film did not occur on Earth. In contrast, Jane is one Earth and has no superpower to travel between realms. However, fans were not convinced by this explanation and started campaigning for her. As time went by, rumors also began to float that Natalie Portman herself declined to reprise her role in Thor films as she was unhappy how her character was not getting any substantial part.
These rumors were further fueled by the addition of Tessa Thompson as the new female lead. But the Marvel Executives still maintained their stance, which was proven true with time.
Thor: Love and Thunder
The fourth film in the Thor franchise was announced back in 2019 but had suffered multiple delays due to COVID-19 and the unavailability of the actors during that time. Thor: Love and Thunder will see Natalie Portman become the Mighty Thor based on the comics of the same name. She will become the Goddess of Thunder. Images of a beefed-up Natalie Portman were leaked in 2021 where she had gained a lot of muscles to play the character.
All we know is that the film is inspired by the Mighty Thor storyline where Jane has breast cancer before she becomes the Mighty Thor. The trailer is expected to release in April, while the movie is set to release on 8th July 2022.
Conclusion
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