Thor: It's A Good Thing That Lady Sif Wasn't In Ragnarok

Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) not being in Thor: Ragnarok ended up being a positive thing, that ultimately spared her character from being permanently killed off. Writer-director Taika Waititi is credited for breathing new life into the Thor franchise, as while Kenneth Branagh's 2011 Thor and Alan Parker's 2013 follow up, Thor: The Dark World, were hits for Marvel Studios, they were lagging behind Iron Man and Captain America's trilogies in terms of critical and fan acclaim.

The rollicking Thor: Ragnarok radically changed the God of Thunder and his corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Waititi also mercilessly killed off much of Thor's established supporting cast, and Lady Sif would likely have been a casualty had she been in the film. Sif appeared in the first two Thor movies; she was established as a powerful Asgardian warrior who was part of Thor's special band of comrades, which also included the Warriors Three, Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), and Fandral (Joshua Davis/Zachary Levi). Sif was a close friend of and was poised to be a love interest for Thor, as she was in Marvel Comics, but that romance never materialized in the MCU since Thor's first two films focused on his love affair with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). As such, Sif ended up as a background character who was handy in a fight but not fully developed.

Sif was originally intended to be part of Thor: Ragnarok, but Jaimie Alexander couldn't join the production because of her obligations as the star of NBC's Blindspot, which aired from 2015-2020, and literally shot on another continent. Alexander didn't receive enough notice from Marvel that could make the scheduling work, so she bowed out and Sif didn't appear in the film at all. However, that ended up being a very good thing for Alexander and her Asgardian character, because Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok plans involved, as the director put it to The Verge in 2017, "the death of the old world and the rebirth of the new. And I think that applies to this film, because we’re destroying what’s been made in the previous films, and then rebirthing it." That included killing off core characters like Odin (Anthony Hopkins), the Warriors Three and, if she had been in the film, likely Sif as well.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege confirmed to Collider that Sif would have very likely met a grim fate in Thor: Ragnarok: "If she had been on Asgard, she might not be alive, so that’s one of the advantages [of not having her in the film]." Whether or not Sif died because of Thanos' (Josh Brolin) snap in Avengers: Infinity War was an open question but regardless, if she had been dusted along with half of the universe, she was resurrected in Avengers: Endgame. Either way, the characters Waititi killed off in Thor: Ragnarok are considered permanently deceased. Since Sif skipped the film, she is considered to still be alive, and can potentially make an MCU return.

Sif's final appearance (so far) in an MCU film was when she and Falstaff brought the Aether/Reality Stone to the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) at the end of Thor: The Dark World. Afterward, the last time fans saw Sif was when she appeared in the first two seasons of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD; indeed, Jaimie Alexander's Asgardian was one of the few MCU movie characters to crossover with the ABC spinoff TV series, joining Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders).

Now that Blindspot has ended after a five-season run, Jaimie Alexander is free to reprise Lady Sif, and Marvel did come calling as the actress has joined the cast of Thor: Love and Thunder and Lady Sif could appear in Loki on Disney Plus as well, Hopefully, the intergalactic Asgardian warrior survives Thor: Love and Thunder, which would give Lady Sif the options to guest star in other cosmic MCU films like Captain Marvel 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, or one of the many other MCU series coming to Disney Plus.

Next: Thor 4: MCU Characters Who Can Appear In The Avengers-Style Cast