The nature of a status quo is that, while it can feel comforting and familiar, it often gets stale over time. This is why film franchises often push themselves to shake up the status quo, and there was perhaps no bigger shakeup than Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame, which saw Thor join the Guardians of the Galaxy while graduating Valkyrie to his title of King of Asgard
Now, with Thor: Love and Thunder set to debut the first successor to the Thor name in Jane Foster, we take a look at all the other Gods of Thunder the film could include.
Jane Foster
As the only one on the list already confirmed for the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, Jane Foster's Mighty Thor is an obvious inclusion. As a character already familiar to fans of the films through Thor's first two solo outings, Jane is also a leading scientist in the field of astrophysics, as well as Thor's ex-love interest.
Of course, if the MCU version is going to be anything like the comics, she will need to undergo some dramatic changes. When Jane wielded Mjolnir in the comics, it was while she was suffering from cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. The transformation the magical hammer brought on granted her a respite from her ailing mortal form, but whether this duality will translate into the cinematic adaptation remains to be seen.
Beta Ray Bill
Fan-favorite Beta Ray Bill almost appeared in the MCU, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege pulled the appearance out of a desire to save the character's big debut for later. Instead, fans only received a brief Easter egg for the horse-faced alien on the facade of a building on Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, and the possible hint that he previously reigned as a Sakaarian champion only makes the expectation for his debut that much more titillating.
With a rich history in the comics as the champion of his people and one of the few worthy of wielding Mjolnir, Beta Ray often uses his own hammer instead. The Mjolnir facsimile is called Stormbreaker, and detail-oriented fans will note the weapon already precedes its owner in the MCU itself.
Thunderstrike
Perhaps less popular than Beta Ray, Eric Masterson is equally as worthy to wield the Thunder God's mighty hammer. After serving as Thor himself for some years, Eric eventually struck out on his own as the hero Thunderstrike and wielded a magical mace with the same name.
The real appeal of Thunderstrike is that he humanizes Thor comics in a way that's sorely lacking in their more fantastical or sci-fi adventures. As a divorced single father caught in the traditional problems of balancing his superheroics with his personal life, Masterson could help ground the MCU Thor movies back on Earth where they've always thrived.
Dargo Ktor
Under the firm belief that Thor swinging Mjolnir through places like Svartalfheim and Nidavellier is far too easy to pronounce, Marvel introduced his future successor, Dargo Ktor, to give fans a real challenge. First appearing in Thor #384 in the story "The Once And Future Thor," Dargo hails from a distant Earth in a story that invokes Arthurian legend as much as Nordic.
After a cult springs up surrounding a community's inability to lift Mjolnir, it's Dargo who finally claims the weapon to defend his people. It seems like a pretty extreme stretch to expect the character to appear in the MCU given his future setting, his relative obscurity and the difficulty of fitting him in. However, the MCU has opened the doors to time travel and reality hopping, and if Marvel is looking for Thors to flesh out the cast at any point, Dargo would be a deep-cut shoutout.
Throg
In a universe that has already contains a drunken talking raccoon and a tentacle monster disguised as a cat, there's no idea too ridiculous, so don't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of Throg. Created by Walt Simonson, the character was originally a human known as Simon Walterson who was cursed to spend the remainder of his years in the form of a frog. Luckily, he would be the mightiest frog there ever was.
Capitalizing on an earlier storyline in which Thor himself was turned into a frog, Throg the Thor Frog was Marvel's way of reintroducing the concept without needing to keep its main character in a permanently amphibious form. Perhaps most famously, Throg went on adventures with the other animals of Marvel in the Pet Avengers, and if nothing else, an MCU adaptation of the family-friendly story would be a great place to see him.
However, if Marvel really wanted to shoot for the fences and hit one out of the park, it would make Throg a central character in a major film. The progression of Thor throughout the MCU shows that fans only love him more the more ridiculous he gets, and the box office dollars reflect this. Though the character started as a brooding Shakespearean figure, he transformed into a wisecracking action hero and, eventually, a Fortnite-playing alcoholic. At this point, making a frog the God of Thunder may be the only way to top it.
Directed by Taika Waititi, Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. The film arrives in theaters Nov. 5, 2021.