Many fans were taken by surprise when it was announced that Natalie Portman would not only be returning as Jane Foster in Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder, but that she would do so as the new God of Thunder.
Now, in a new interview, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has revealed how the decision to bring the character back with this new, comics-inspired twist came to be.
"We love the story -- it's one of the best comic runs recently," Feige said of writer Jason Aaron's Thor run, which was illustrated by Russel Dauterman and other artists. "[Director Taika Waitit] would flip through and read that run while he was doing Ragnarok. And I think when he agreed to come back and do another Thor, he was like, 'How do we--?' This is a very big movie that'll be folding in a lot of elements. That is a huge, important part of it."
"He pitched it to us, and we were totally in. We loved it. We'd been in touch with Natalie. She's part of the MCU family and we put she and Taika together. It took one meeting and she agreed to do it."
Natalie Portman briefly reprised her role as Jane Foster in Avengers: Endgame. While the footage of the character was recycled from Thor: The Dark World, the actress performed new voice recordings for the film. Love and Thunder will mark the star's proper return after last being seen in 2013's Thor: The Dark World.
Directed by Taika Waititi, Thor: Love and Thunder starring Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth arrives in theaters Nov. 5, 2021.