The following contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder, now playing in theaters.
One delight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is how it explores the ramifications of its earth-shattering events on the average non-powered citizen. Comparatively, few members of the in-world public have even peripheral connections to the events onscreen, leaving them passive observers in the conflicts that often hold all of reality in the balance. Far from detracting from such stories, the trend has produced some of the franchise's most entertaining moments and given the MCU itself a sense of shared reality.
In the process, it's become a handy way to disseminate information that the audience and certain characters are familiar with but that the bulk of the MCU would have no way of knowing. Off-planet battles, for instance, require dissemination for anyone on Earth to know about them, which could cause unexpected logic holes and other issues if left unaddressed. Ms. Marvel did wonders for creative means of filling in average folks in the franchise on cosmic doings, and now Thor: Love and Thunder has found another amusing way to spread the word: the Asgardian players.
The civilians-eye-view concept takes strong cues from the Marvels limited series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, which presented some of the seminal battles of the company's Silver Age genesis from the perspective of an ordinary photographer. The MCU used it directly in Captain America: Civil War. But the best example came in the first Avengers movie when it paid homage to Marvels with a grateful waitress a few blocks from Stark Towers who tells the world, "Captain America saved my life."
That begs the question of whether such figures know about more secretive events and, if so, how. Ms. Marvel Episode 1 delivered a crash course in public dissemination, courtesy of Kamala Khan's status as a superhero superfan. She mentions Scott Lang's ongoing podcast, "Big Me, Little Me," as a conduit for first-hand details, while her visit to AvengerCon contains a treasure trove of tell-all books and similar Easter eggs that do much the same. That pays dividends in Season 1, Episode 6, "No Normal," as Ms. Marvel makes a very public debut thanks to her new friend Zoe's social media followers.
Love and Thunder finds its own way to do the same thing with the dippy Asgardian thespians whom Loki tasked interpret his "death" in Thor: The Dark World. They reappear in Love and Thunder, having survived not only the destruction of Asgard but Thanos' pre-Snap attack on the survivors in Avengers: Infinity War as well. With the New Asgard colony on Earth reinventing itself as a tourist trap, they now give public performances to visitors as part of the local attractions.
That includes another shoddy re-enactment of an MCU event the public wouldn't be privy to -- the destruction of Mjolnir. Naturally, it's as bowdlerized and amateurish as their first production -- though it adds another performer with Melissa McCarthy's Faux Hela -- but it succeeds more or less in conveying what happened to hordes of tourists. At scheduled start times, no less.
The joke, of course, is that the players get portrayed by real-life actors, including Chris Hemsworth's brother Liam as Faux Thor. But Love and Thunder uses them for more than repeat laughs. They prepare to cover the adventures of Thor, Valkyrie and other Asgardians off-world as another one of their hammy performances, ensuring that the civilians in their version of Earth get caught up on whatever happens out there. That lets the MCU keep the joke going while doing the more important work of preventing a host of potential logic holes down the road.
See the latest performance in Thor: Love and Thunder, currently playing in theaters.