Y'all, there's a whole lotta Marvel movie content coming out in Phase 4, so it's understandably difficult for some fans to decide which project they're the most excited about — however, for me, it's simple: It's Thor: Love and Thunder. Give me Thor: Love and Thunder.
And slowly, over the last few months, those working on the highly anticipated four-quel(?) have been dropping sly little teases for the film here and there — like this one of Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, and writer-director-Korg, Taika Waititi:
And this black-and-white masterpiece that I'd like to blow up to a ridiculous size, print out, frame, and hang over my (imaginary) fireplace:
But the most exciting behind-the-scenes photo came this weekend in the form of a gentle troll by Hemsworth when he posted a birthday message for Gemini king Chris Evans on his Instagram, using a photo of Chris Pratt — and the two men are clearly in their Love and Thunder costumes:
"Happy 40th birthday Chris Evans, you'll always be number 1 in my book 🎉🎉 @chrisevans!" Hemsworth wrote in the caption — a marvelous troll on the other MCU Chrises.
Expert trolling aside, the photo confirmation of Star Lord's involvement in the film is exciting, since it's long been assumed that the Guardians of the Galaxy crew would be making an appearance in the fourth Thor film, given how we left everyone in Avengers: Endgame!
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Ya know, with Thor leaving rule of Asgard to Valkyrie and fleeing Earth with the Guardians — but definitely NOT being in charge of them or anything???
James Gunn — writer and director of the Guardians franchise — further confirmed their involvement on Twitter back in February, stating that he and Waititi had worked together to ensure that the Guardians' own character stories continued on their current trajectory:
@tforest76 Not much, & @TaikaWaititi is doing a great job - the script is amazing. We talked before he started writing it about where the characters are & where they're going & he read the script for Vol 3 & then I read his script & shared my thoughts.
OKAY, SO — all things we know about the film so far: Valkyrie will be taking charge of Asgard from Thor, Natalie Portman is back as Jane, Christian Bale will be playing an antagonist, Matt Damon is going to be in it, AND the Guardians will be involved in some capacity!
Still, we're left with so many questions! What will be the Guardians' role in Phase 4? How will Thor work alongside them? Will Hemsworth ever present us with his permit for carryin' those guns around?!
Guess we'll just have to wait ~patiently~ until Thor: Love and Thunder is finally released on May 22, 2022, to find out!
