CAUTION: Spoilers Ahead for Thor: Love & Thunder
Thor: Love & Thunder featured a multitude of fun and interesting cameos, but several were cut from the final film. Marvel never shies away from cameos in their MCU projects, most notably the long-running cameos of Marvel Comics creative leader Stan Lee in every Marvel film up until his death in 2018. While many of the characters and actors cameoing in Thor: Love & Thunder were great for viewers to see, there were some scenes that were filmed with returning characters that unfortunately ended up on the cutting room floor.
Thor: Love & Thunder introduces viewers to the God of Thunder for the first time after the events of Avengers: Endgame. He leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy and returns to New Asgard, now ruled by King Valkyrie, to put together a rag-tag team to defeat the sinister Gorr the God Butcher after his renouncement of the Gods. Viewers are finally gifted the exciting reveal of the Mighty Thor, Jane Foster, whose wielding of Mjolnir provides short-term protection against her cancer as well as infusing her with the power of Thor. The team meets various larger-than-life characters throughout Thor: Love & Thunder, with the comedic nature of Taika Waititi's previous entry Thor: Ragnarok carrying on into this project.
Aside from the appearance of the Guardians, Asgardian actors portrayed by Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Sam Neill return alongside newcomer Melissa McCarthy, while Chris Hemsworth's, Natalie Portman's, and Waititi's children are all also included in various roles in the film. There's even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance from Daley Pearson's Darryl, reprising his role from the Team Thor one-shot series. Russell Crowe portrays Zeus, but concept art suggests that he was originally supposed to appear as Satan in Love & Thunder. It has been revealed that there were even more cameos planned for Thor: Love & Thunder that unfortunately didn't end up in the final cut.
Peter Dinklage's Eitri
First appearing in Avengers: Infinity War, Eitri the Dwarf was the creator of both Mjolnir and Thor's new weapon Stormbreaker, overseeing the forge at Nidavellir. When Thanos paid an off-screen visit to the forge, Eitri was forced to make the infamous Infinity Gauntlet before being injured and having his workforce decimated by the Mad Titan. While it would've been interesting to see Eitri appear in Thor: Love & Thunder, his scenes in the film were cut from the final product. In an interview, Gorr actor Christian Bale stated that he filmed scenes with Peter Dinklage. Bale went on to say that "that's not in the final film, but I got to work with him, he's fantastic." It hasn't been revealed what this scene would have entailed, however, seeing Gorr and Eitri together in Thor: Love & Thunder probably suggests that the God Butcher had targeted Eitri as one of his victims.
Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster
Introduced as the charismatic leader of Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, Goldblum infused his role of the Grandmaster with a brilliant theatricality that played to the fresh, comic tone of the third Thor film. The Grandmaster's fate at the end of Ragnarok left the opportunity open for his return in the future of the MCU. His status as an Elder of the Universe certainly suggested he may return again in several future MCU projects, perhaps even being targeted by Gorr the God Butcher, since Bale revealed he had also filmed scenes with Goldblum, as the Grandmaster is practically seen as a God.
However, the Grandmaster's appearance in Thor: Love & Thunder ended up being cut, with the seasoned actor giving a typically Goldblum response by stating "I'm not seen, visually... Nor am I referred to... I am sensed, only vibrationally." The Grandmaster would have fit perfectly into the tone of Thor: Love & Thunder, which still holds up the colorful and comedic textures of Ragnarok. Waititi has stated that the scenes involving Goldblum and Dinklage were cut from the film simply because they weren't good enough and, despite the relatively short runtime for an MCU movie, the story just didn't need them.
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Lena Headey's Unknown Role
The second Game of Thrones alum to be teased for a role in Thor: Love & Thunder, Headey had filmed scenes for the film, although nothing about her character or how she would fit into the story has been revealed. The cutting of these scenes in Love & Thunder comes following a lawsuit from Headey's U.K. talent agency, which claims she owes $1.5 million in unpaid commission fees from several projects including Love & Thunder. There have been rumors circulating that Headey would've been portraying a fellow Valkyrie in the film, so while these scenes may have diluted the Gorr-centric narrative, it would've been exciting to see Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie interact with a sister.
While MCU fans are eager to see deleted scenes involving these actors, Waititi has revealed that they will never be released, meaning their cameos will soon be long-forgotten. Thor: Love & Thunder is a strong film without these scenes, although it seems MCU fans will be wondering for a long time about how they would've fit in with the story and whether they would've mattered at all. However, since Gorr the God Butcher didn't kill Eitri or the Grandmaster in the final cut of Thor: Love & Thunder, the door is open for those characters to return to the MCU in the future.
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