Thor's New Love & Thunder Look Risks Ignoring His Real Endgame Issue

Thor will be the fittest he's ever been in Thor: Love & Thunder, but despite the hero losing all the weight, the film risks ignoring his real issues from Avengers: Endgame. The God of Thunder will continue his MCU adventures on the heels of the Infinity Saga via the upcoming Taika Waititi film. Plot specifics are scant at the moment, but a slew of leaked Thor: Love & Thunder set images have offered clues as to what to expect from the blockbuster.

The revelations from the aforementioned photos include the involvement of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the new look of Earth-based Asgard, and the introduction of Thor's goats. However, arguably the most interesting detail from Thor: Love & Thunder's set images is the end of Fat Thor from Endgame, with Chris Hemsworth visibly bigger than he already was. While Love and Thunder should potentially keep Fat Thor, Hemsworth himself has revealed that he's at his fittest working on the upcoming Marvel Studios film. This physical transformation from the God of Thunder could be taken as an indication that he's bounced back from his depression after his failure to defeat Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.

However, Thor's buffer physique in Love & Thunder doesn't guarantee that he's also dealt with his mental health. Instead, it might even be a sign that he's focusing on the wrong issue, tackling his aesthetics rather than actually addressing the root of the problem. Thor's weight gain during Endgame's five-year time jump was motivated by his psychological difficulties. He'd lost the will to move forward after his catastrophic failure dealing with Thanos; couple that with the string of his personal losses, and the God of Thunder suffered a major breakdown. He abandoned his duty as the King of Asgard and focused instead on playing video games. He couldn't accept his defeat, and so he checked out on his responsibilities as a way to shut himself away from the world. Perhaps, it might even be a self-inflicted punishment as he totally lost his confidence as a hero. Thor's mental state manifested in his physical health, leading to his weight gain. To be able to properly go through the process of healing, he needs to tackle both aspects of the matter.

It's possible that Thor's drive to undo his arc from Endgame and even be bigger and fitter is his way of dealing with his presumed issues. He might be operating under the assumption that if he looks like his old self, he can easily slip back into his old routine and everything will be back to the way it was before Thanos showed up. However, losing the extra weight — something that he might be associating with his dark days — isn’t going to magically resolve his mental issues. Even with the Mad Titan now successfully defeated and the decimation undone, it doesn't automatically address Thor's personal problems, unfortunately. Thanos' win in Infinity War was merely what tipped him over the edge, but there were a lot of other contributing factors to his breakdown, primarily the death of all members of his family in the last several years. Thor only dealing with the physical manifestation of a bigger problem in Thor: Love & Thunder would only worsen it.

Marvel Studios already succeeded in tackling a similar situation with Wanda's desired happy life in WandaVision. The Disney+ series explored Wanda Maximoff's suppressed trauma that began with the death of her parents in war-torn Sokovia; from there, she'd lost every single important person in her life with Vision being the last one. Admittedly, Thor: Love & Thunder will have a lighter story than the aforementioned show, but it's imperative that the movie properly tackles Thor's mental health. Otherwise, this proves the criticisms that the introduction of Fat Thor in Avengers: Endgame was just for comedic purposes.

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