Thor: Love and Thunder will showcase the return of Natalie Portman's Jane Foster in the MCU, but this time around, the character gets an upgrade. After being a renowned astrophysicist, Foster is set to transform into the Mighty Thor, wielding the newly-reassembled Mjolnir to help Chris Hemsworth's God of Thunder to fight off Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher.
Marketing for Love and Thunder has ramped up in the past weeks, and one of its highlights is Portman's muscular build as the new MCU hero.
The trailers and promo images have unveiled Portman's surprising physique, which is a huge improvement from her past two MCU appearances. Aside from the physical transformation, Thor 4 director Taika Waititi also shared that Portman will be funnier in the movie, allowing her comedic prowess to be unleashed alongside the rest of the cast.
Now, the returning Marvel actress has discussed her preparation for the thrilling comeback.
Natalie Portman Reveals Thor 4 Regimen
Natalie Portman, who portrays the MCU's Jane Foster, sat down with Total Film, via Gamesradar, to talk about her return in this year's Thor: Love and Thunder.
Love and Thunder's official trailer featured Portman's jacked Marvel hero while also showing her character in thrilling action sequences. Portman revealed that she "trained for a long time" for her return, with the actress "doing the whole protein shakes [thing]" during her preparation:
“I trained for a long time before and during, and I was doing the whole protein shakes [thing]. It really helped prepare me for the level of action that we ended up doing.”
The Marvel actress then praised the "incredible stunt doubles" involved in production while also pointing out that it's "definitely helpful to be strong" while filming action sequences:
“We had incredible stunt doubles who did the really hard stuff, but there’s still a great deal of running and jumping and swords and hammer-fighting. It was definitely helpful to be strong. To have that weight of the cape all day, you want to have some upper-body strength.”
Portman also expressed her excitement about being a superhero in the upcoming MCU installment, after having appeared as Jane Foster in the first Thor movie and Thor: The Dark World:
“It’s exciting to get to be a superhero. And there’s no guidebook that comes along and tells you how to do it.”
Alongside the reveal, a brand new still of Portman as Mighty Thor was released:
Mighty Thor's Unique Fighting Style
Natalie Portman is no stranger to intense action sequences since she already has experience in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Annihilation, and Léon: The Professional. However, this is an entirely different ballgame as she is set to battle powerful beings at the forefront of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Thor 4 director Taika Waititi already teased that Mighty Thor's fighting style is different from Chris Hemsworth's God of Thunder, noting that she has "a feeling of dance when she fights." The fact that Portman has done ballet in the past definitely helped in her preparation, but her rigorous training could be considered the icing on the cake when it comes to completing her masterful comeback.
The trailers have shown a glimpse of Mighty Thor in action, with the newly-reformed Mjolnir breaking up into little pieces to pounce on her enemies. The signs indicate that more Mighty Thor-related maneuvers will be unveiled in the final cut, thus proving that the hard work that Portman did throughout her training was worth it.
It's likely that the actress' stint as Mighty Thor in Love and Thunder is not a one-off, meaning that she might end up returning for a potential solo movie or even Avengers 5. As a result, more intense training will be on the cards for Portman. However, given that she already had a taste of the Marvel brand of training, it seems that the actress will welcome another round of preparation anytime soon.
Thor: Love and Thunder is set to premiere in theaters on July 8.
