Thor 4- Origin of Jane’s Mighty Thor by Infinity War Novel:
Taika Waititi is back for Thor 4 and he will be establishing some great connections of the Thor franchise with the larger MCU. Thor: Ragnarok was a film that ditched everything from the previous Thor movies, but Thor: Love And Thunder will stitch it all back. It will be the aftermath of Infinity War & Endgame, and at the same time it will re-establish the Love & Thunder between Thor & Jane. It has been revealed that Natalie Portman will be the Mighty Thor, but how is Taika going to make that happen?
Recent reports have confirmed that Taika is already done with the script of Thor 4. But, he’d be cooking up some other project until he gets shooting Thor 4 by mid-2020. This most certainly is going to be the biggest film of Phase 4. The story actually has a lot of options at its disposal. There’s the whole Multiverse that the movie could deal with. The likes of Hela and the Grandmaster could potentially return, and so could the Hulk.
But, the story will already focus upon 3 major characters – Thor, Jane and Valkyrie. Then there’re Korg, Miek, the new queen of Asgard and the new villains of the film. So perhaps Hela & the Grandmaster’s arcs may be left open ended until Thor 5. What would be the main point of focus is the origin of Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor. How come Jane is worthy of the power of Thor all of a sudden? Is this version of Jane from an alternate Universe? Well, it logically shouldn’t be because Jane Foster is still alive on the prime Earth 616.
Perhaps the answer to Jane’s worthiness lies back in Thor: The Dark World, Infinity War & Endgame. The last time we saw Jane before Endgame was in The Dark World where she became a host for the Aether for a while. The guys at Screen Rant went through Brandon T. Snider’s Infinity War tie-in novel The Cosmic Quest Volume II: Aftermath once again and they found a possible story thread that explains how exactly Jane could possibly be worthy ever since Thor 2.
The Novel followed the characters Doctor Erik Selvig and Darcy Lewis on Earth who were investigating Thanos’ snap, and what exactly caused the Infinity Stones to remove half of the Universe’s population. Their search for answers leads them back to Jane Foster who then reveals that being connected with the Aether for a while changed her in a very peculiar way.
Apparently, being merged with an Infinity Stone (Reality) Jane was perhaps the only person who was able to sense the usage of all the Infinity Stones together. When Thanos performed the Snap, she knew what had happened. The same could have happened in Endgame as well since the Hulk also blipped and Tony made an ultimate sacrifice. But that’s a story for another time.
With Jane’s sense of the snap, the science trio deciphers that the Infinity Stones were the source of the Universal calamity. Their exploration quest further leads them to Tønsberg, Norway (aka the future site of “New Asgard”) and here Jane uses the Waters of Sight to spark a vision. This vision tells her about Thanos’ mission, the Infinity Gauntlet and what Thanos did with it.
All this, Jane’s sense of the Infinity Stones and her being able to use the Waters of Sight does hint at the fact that she now has the ability of Cosmic Awareness just like in the comics. What the reality stone did to her could have perhaps made her worthy of the Mjolnir as well. Since this was a tie-in Novel, everything that happened should be true. But Endgame may have stated otherwise.
Apparently, Endgame helped us find out that Erik Selvig was also snapped away. So, he never met Jane after the Snap. But perhaps Jane could have taken this trip to Norway along with Darcy. She could have been alive all 5 years after the Decimation. Thor: Love And Thunder could certainly adapt this novel in order to give Jane a justified origin.
But then again, we arrive at the fact that how exactly will Taika manage to bring Mjolnir back into the story. Jane’s worthiness and her powers of Thor would come with the Hammer and Captain America took it back to the past. So, will Eitri be forging a new hammer? The reason for Eitri to be making another Mjolnir doesn’t strike us. More importantly, who will cast the spell of worthiness upon it?
Perhaps, the most sensible answer of bringing Mewmew back lies in the Loki series. Rumor has it that in the Disney+ series, Loki will be wreaking havoc throughout history. With the Tesseract, he obviously created an alternate timeline, i.e. an alternate reality/Universe. After WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness play with multiple Universes, Loki will also give us his spin on it. And that could lead him to return in Thor 4. He could further be the means to bring back the hammer as well. But how will Loki bring the Mjolnir back? Is he worthy as well? That’s another question which needs to be answered.
Let’s wait and see what happens. Here’s the slate of Phase 4 – Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.
