WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.
Natalie Portman says her son wants her to keep making Marvel movies after Thor: Love and Thunder. The Oscar-winning actress, with nearly thirty years in the entertainment industry, returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the franchise's latest film installment, reprising her role as Jane Foster. While Portman appeared as alternate versions of Jane in Avengers: Endgame and the Disney+ animated series What If...?, the Jane from the main timeline was absent from the previous Thor movie, Thor: Ragnarok, making this recent return her first time back since 2013, in Thor: The Dark World.
Thor: Love and Thunder sees Portman's Jane Foster faced with a cancer diagnosis, which compels her to travel to New Asgard in search of Mjölnir, hoping it will strengthen her. Because of an enchantment Thor put on the hammer years earlier, Mjölnir reassembles itself, proclaims Jane worthy, and she becomes the Mighty Thor. The rest of the film follows Jane, Thor, Valkyrie, and Korg venturing to fight Gorr the God Butcher. However, along the way, Jane discovers that her condition actually worsens every time she uses the hammer. She feels compelled to keep on and help others, which eventually leads to her making a self-sacrificial play and dying. The film's post-credits scene reveals Jane went to Valhalla, the Norse afterlife. While this may seem like the end of Jane Foster in the MCU, Portman isn't necessarily ready to be done.
In a clip via ET from a recent episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge that Portman is featured in, she says that her son wants her to keep making more Marvel movies. Read Portman's comment below:
I loved that they had it as like a Thor, you know? Thor is a concept, not necessarily a singular person, and I'm excited to make a movie that my son likes. He was like, 'Can you just keep doing Marvel movies?'
This isn't the first time Portman has showed enthusiasm about her experience in the MCU and addressed her future in it. She's previously said she's "open to anything" and feels like "anything is possible." She's also revealed she'd like the Mighty Thor and Captain Marvel to team up in the future. What's more, in the comics, Jane dies, but then came back to life. Plus, now there's the possibility of a Multiverse route, where Portman could portray an alternate version of her character.
In any case, Portman's openness to returning to the MCU continues, and her son's wish to see her return strengthens it. There are several routes to take to make a Jane Foster/Mighty Thor comeback happen and with surprising things happening all the time throughout the franchise, it wouldn't be impossible. After all, Portman seemingly departed from the MCU after Thor: The Dark World, only to finally return in Thor: Love and Thunder nearly a decade later. While it may seem like the end of her character now, in the future "anything is possible," as she says.
Source: Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge (via ET)
