The MCU Must Fix Its Valkyrie Problem After Thor: Love & Thunder

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor: Love and Thunder's underuse of Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie highlights the MCU's incessant neglect of her significance to its world and to the audiences who see themselves in the character. In Love and Thunder, Valkyrie graced the screen for the first time since 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Having been granted the mantle of King of New Asgard by the God of Thunder himself, Valkyrie converged with Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Natalie Portman's Jane Foster in the Taika Waititi-directed Love and Thunder on a mission to rescue New Asgard's children who were kidnapped by Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher. While Thor and Jane rekindled their lost love, Valkyrie and the Kronan Korg — voiced by Waititi — tagged along and sustained injuries that kept them out of the film's final battle. Unfortunately, Thor: Love and Thunder failed to capitalize on Valkyrie's rich backstory and leaves her bereft of meaningful development in the future.

An Asgardian warrior turned King, Valkyrie made her MCU debut in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, in which she encountered the God of Thunder on the planet Sakaar. Alone and drunk, she served as a scrapper after losing all of her sisters — including her lover — while fighting the goddess of death Hela (Cate Blanchett). Valkyrie later joined Thor and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to vanquish Hela (Cate Blanchett), who had newly conquered Asgard. Thanks to the doomsday event known as Ragnarok, Hela met her demise, though Asgard went down with her. Valkyrie survived Thanos' snap and participated in the conclusive battle against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. Although the real name of Thompson's character has not been uttered on-screen, her comic-book counterpart has widely been regarded as the Valkyrie Brunnhilde.

Valkyrie’s three MCU appearances have not carried the screen time to properly develop her character. While Ragnarok established parts of her backstory and laid some intriguing groundwork for her future, Valkyrie’s limited involvement in Endgame and Love and Thunder hardly progressed her arc or further fleshed out her character. Additionally, the MCU has only half-heartedly included Valkyrie's bisexuality in its depiction of her. Therefore, a solo project centering on Valkyrie remains the only solution for the MCU to realize the character's full potential.

How The MCU Has Failed Valkyrie So Far

Valkyrie talking to Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Although just as layered as Thor or Loki, Valkyrie has not seen her intricacies detailed nearly enough. To date, she has only featured in projects that revolve around others such as Thor or the Avengers' principal figures. Furthermore, Waititi's Ragnarok and Love and Thunder primarily used Valkyrie as a comedic sidekick for Thor rather than a fleshed-out individual with her own arc. Valkyrie's introduction in Ragnarok set her on the path of choosing to live with the pain of her past rather than run away from it, but the MCU has not spent any of Valkyrie's subsequent appearances exploring this personal strife. Even though Thor: Love and Thunder lightly emphasized that Valkyrie missed fighting after becoming King — which explains why she was eager to accompany Thor, Jane, and Korg to Omnipotent City and the Shadow Realm — ultimately, the film neglected to dive into her adjustment to the life of a ruler as someone who had only known the battlefield.

Equally, Tessa Thompson has established Valkyrie as a charismatic, yet deeply embattled persona, but frustratingly hasn’t been afforded much of a spotlight to showcase her character's complexity. Outside of the MCU, the actor's impressive range of roles occur in projects like Westworld, Little Woods, Dear White People, and the Creed movies. Tessa Thompson's ability to play multidimensional characters encompassing depth, seriousness and humor has never been in doubt, thus the MCU is wasting her talent by limiting the scope of her character. Instead of capitalizing on the rich comic lore around the Valkyrie as a people or spotlighting King Valkyrie's undertaking of New Asgard's kingship more in-depth, the MCU has fixated every relevant project on Thor's story — which undersells the world from which he originates and its vast array of characters.

The MCU Fumbled Valkyrie's LGBTQ+ Representation In Thor 4

Valkyrie and Jane sit beside each other in thrones in Thor: Love And Thunder

Since Valkyrie has solely featured in the MCU as a side character, authentically representing her bisexuality and fleshing out her persona in other ways is a complicated task. Although Love and Thunder confirmed Valkyrie's bisexuality through moments such as Korg mentioning her dead girlfriend, Valkyrie telling Thor that they're on "the same team," and Valkyrie kissing the hand of one of Zeus' maidens, the film merely achieved the bare minimum when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation and shouldn't be praised considering the MCU's failure to reference Valkyrie's sexuality at all in her first two appearances. Previously, a scene depicting a woman exiting Valkyrie's living quarters on Sakaar was removed from Ragnarok's final cut, and despite declaring in 2019 that Valkyrie's first order of business as King would be to "find her queen," Thompson later hinted that despite initial intentions, Love and Thunder's storyline did not allow enough room to include a love-interest for Valkyrie.

On Love and Thunder's exclusion of Valkyrie's romantic subplot, Thompson told Yahoo Entertainment, "I hope that she's a character that fans continue to connect to, that we have a lot of time to explore her, in all of her humanity. But whether or not she finds love in this movie doesn't mean she's not still a fabulous queer character that is open to finding love when it makes sense." While the actor is correct in that Valkyrie's lack of a love interest does not invalidate her identity nor LGBTQ+ audiences' ability to relate to her, it's clear that the MCU has prioritized other characters' stories and purposefully refused multiple opportunities to feature a queer relationship through Valkyrie. Although Valkyrie — like any other character— doesn't require a romantic partner at all costs, finding love again would serve her development well. In Love and Thunder, Valkyrie tells Korg that she doesn't know if she wants a "special someone" again after losing her girlfriend in battle. Therefore, exploring Valkyrie's hesitancy to love and be loved would provide a fitting avenue through which to explore New Asgard's King.

Love and Thunder may not have been the right project for Valkyrie to find her queen, but the problem is that the film does very little with her aside from some mostly comedic dialogue and several combat sequences, leaving Valkyrie in the same position she started the movie in developmentally wise. Furthermore, Love and Thunder's acknowledgment of Valkyrie’s sexuality only confirmed what Waititi and Thompson had clarified off-screen prior to the film's release. If the MCU is to rectify its lackluster LGBTQ+ representation on a larger scale, a step in the right direction would be to deliver a plotline involving Valkyrie's endeavor of opening herself up to the love of another, though such a story requires plenty of room to breathe within any given project in order to do it justice.

Valkyrie Needs A Solo Project In The MCU

Valkyrie smiling confidently in Thor Ragnarok

As long as Valkyrie exists merely on the periphery of any project she's involved in, her story won't develop in the way it warrants. A Valkyrie-focused Disney+ series would allow for the in-depth character exploration of which the MCU has deprived her. Valkyrie's ventures following Love and Thunder remain vague, however, a show set in New Asgard could feature others like Lady Sif — another Asgardian with a painfully underdeveloped characterization. Valkyrie's dealing with loss and trauma recovery are consistent with the MCU's thematic direction in Phase 4 — which should continue into the MCU Phases 5 and 6. Her experience with survivor's guilt stands out among characters such as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac), and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) — whose trauma-filled histories have taken center stage in MCU Phase 4. A Valkyrie solo project is necessary for exploring the depth of her character that was established in Ragnarok, yet almost entirely neglected since. The MCU must spotlight her fears, desires, pain, and joy — all of which could develop in a 6-10 episode mini-series, or one that spans multiple seasons.

When Will Valkyrie Appear In The MCU Next?

Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie in Thor: Love and Thunder

As of now, Valkyrie's next MCU appearance has not been officialized. However, a photo from the set of The Marvels seemingly confirms her involvement in the film — assuming her scenes make the final cut. Nonetheless, Valkyrie's potential role in The Marvels is likely small considering the film's focus on Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani). In the more distant future, Thor 5 would almost certainly include Valkyrie in its lineup of characters, though the movie would not release before 2025 amid Phase 6 given Marvel's current release schedule. Valkyrie could also feature in 2026's Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, though it's too early to configure an exact roster for the MCU's next grand event. With an unknown MCU future, Valkyrie remains in dire need of in-depth characterization beyond that of her surface-level distinctions. Thus, in the wake of Thor: Love and Thunder's sidelining of Valkyrie, the MCU must strive to revolve a future story around her — one that explores all of her strengths and flaws.

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