While the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be exploring the multiverse in Phase Four, Taika Waititi is keeping things a little more grounded for Thor: Love and Thunder. Waititi is back at the helm for the upcoming MCU sequel, this time co-writing the script with Someone Great's Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The Oscar winner is also reprising his role of the God of Thunder's Kronan gladiator friend Korg alongside fellow MCU vets Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Jaime Alexander as Sif, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and the entire Guardians of the Galaxy team.
Thor: Love and Thunder picks up sometime after the events of Avengers: Endgame as Thor gets back in shape and embarks on space-faring adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy, only to ultimately depart after wanting to go on a quest for inner peace and retire from the superhero game. Thor finds his goal troubled by the appearance of Gorr the God Butcher, who seeks to eliminate all gods, and must recruit his friends Valkyrie, Korg and Jane Foster, who has become the Mighty Thor. Though Thor: Love and Thunder looks to be picking up a number of plot threads from the MCU prior, there's one that apparently won't be present in the film.
While speaking with Total Film magazine (via ComicBook.com), Taika Waititi opened up about Thor: Love and Thunder's ties to the larger MCU. The co-writer/director confirmed the major difference between the sequel and Phase Four of the MCU being that of its lack of multiversal ties, confirming its existing only in the mainline universe. See what Waititi said below:
"We've got nothing like [the Multiverse] in this film. This is the singular-verse."
Following the false flag introduction in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the multiverse became a major factor in Phase Four of the MCU with Loki season 1's reveal of the Sacred Timeline and subsequent branching off of it. The multiverse would subsequently be explored in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their beloved webslinging roles alongside the villains from their respective franchises, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness finding Benedict Cumberbatch's titular sorcerer journeying through various universes with America Chavez. This thread is expected to continue in next year's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as Jonathan Majors stars as a Kang the Conqueror variant of his Loki season 1 character, with reported plans to have him serve as a major big bad for the MCU moving forward.
While Thor: Love and Thunder may not be dipping its toes into the multiverse, it's not the first title in MCU Phase Four to avoid this concept. Previous film titles Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals made no mention or hints of the multiverse nor have a large number of Disney+'s MCU shows, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye and Moon Knight, making it clear that while Marvel may be eager to dive into the multiverse, they also are taking it step by step with projects they feel best suit the concept. Audiences can look forward to the "singular-verse" return of Hemsworth's God of Thunder when Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters on July 8.
Source: Total Film (Via ComicBook.com)
