Marvel Studios revealed that Natalie Portman will be wielding Mjolnir in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder due out in November 2021.
There is some basis in the comics for Portman’s Jane Foster taking over as Thor. Following the Original Sin storyline, Thor Odinson witnesses an unidentified woman lifting his beloved Hammer and take the power of Thor. Foster eventually throws Mjolnir into the sun during an attempt to destroy Mangog, sacrificing her life in the process. The War of the Realms storyline saw Jane Foster lifting Earth-1610’s version of Mjolnir and later becoming a Valkyrie.
It was thought that Natalie Portman was done with the Thor franchise after Thor: The Dark World. The actress was nowhere to be seen during Thor: Ragnarok. Nor was she anywhere during Avengers: Infinity War. Or at least anywhere that we knew about. Yet a funny thing happened in April. A major plot of Avengers: Endgame dealt with a time heist of the Infinity Stones. This saw us revisit Asgard during 2013’s Thor film and yes, we got a glimpse of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster. The funny thing about this is that she didn’t have to film any new footage, just a voice over per reports. It was previously used footage from the earlier film.
When Portman sat down to discuss her upcoming film career with The Wall Street Journal, the actress assumed that she was done with Marvel. “As far as I know, I’m done,” Portman said at the time. For what it’s worth, the discussion took place in August 2016.
Thor was at quite a different place at the start of Ragnarok so it made sense to cut Jane Foster. The only time that Thor spent on Earth was with Loki while searching for Odin. Doctor Strange ends up helping them out.
