Chris Hemsworth confirms Thor: Love and Thunder is currently on hold. Like every other major studio in Hollywood, Disney was forced to make a number of changes to their upcoming slate amidst the coronavirus pandemic. This included altering the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 schedule, pushing all of the movies back as the industry waits for it to be safe to resume normal business operations. Originally set to premiere in November 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder is now scheduled for a February 2022 release.

The initial plan called for Thor: Love and Thunder to begin filming this summer, but a number of productions have been delayed due to the ongoing health crisis. While the hope was postponed projects could resume shooting in mid-May at the earliest, it looks like things will be pushed back longer than that. Case in point: filming on the MCU's Spider-Man 3 (scheduled for July) could be delayed. And it looks like Thor 4 will be in a similar boat.

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Speaking with ExtraTV, Hemsworth discussed how Love and Thunder has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, confirming what just about everyone expected at this point:

[I was] supposed to shoot Thor in a few months, and that's sort of been put on hold. But that was gonna be in Australia. So I was gonna be in Oz for a while. Now it’s nice just to be home with the kids.

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By now, this news shouldn't come as any surprise. Due to the fluid nature of the situation, it's pretty much impossible for studios to predict when they'll be able to film and plan a schedule. From the looks of things, Hollywood is banking on things improving by the late summer/early fall (Black Adam is hoping to begin shooting in August or September), but even that isn't a guarantee. Right now, the smartest thing to do is sit tight and monitor the pandemic over the next few months. Especially with Thor: Love and Thunder's release date delay, there's no rush to get the cameras rolling. If the start of production is delayed by a few months, the film can still remain on schedule.

As excited people are to see the crazy story Taika Waititi cooked up for Thor: Love and Thunder, most understand waiting until it's safe is the responsible thing to do. It isn't worth risking people's health to make a movie, which is why Hollywood has shut down for the foreseeable future. The good news is all the pieces for Thor: Love and Thunder are in place (Waititi even teased some details during a Thor: Ragnraok watch party), so when the team gets the go-ahead, they'll be able to hit the ground running and get back to work.

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Source: ExtraTV

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