Disney and Marvel Studios have turned their attention to this summer’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which just officially started its promotional tour after an excruciating wait. The follow-up to comedy expert Taika Waititi’s first solo MCU effort is now the talk of the town after its first trailer debuted to the public, showing how Thor and his allies jump back into the fray for their next adventure.
The first trailer for Love and Thunder quickly became a hit, easily joining the top 10 most-viewed trailers in history and becoming the fifth-best for Marvel Studios alone after the last two Avengers films and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Delivering a new round of laughs along with plenty of thrilling action from the God of Thunder, this film could potentially be Hemsworth’s biggest solo story to date.
Many are expecting Thor: Love and Thunder to be classified at least partially as a comedy, largely because of director Taika Waititi’s penchant for the genre both in and out of the MCU. However, thanks to a new official document from Disney, the categorization for Thor 4 turned out to be a little different from what fans may have imagined.
Is Thor 4 a Comedy?
An official production release from Disney has listed the subgenre for Thor: Love and Thunder as "action-adventure."
This same sheet also listed a shortened synopsis for the film, which teased Team Thor's upcoming battle against Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher:
In Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder” the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) teams up with King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend-turned-Mighty-Thor Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to take on a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods.
Humor Not As Prevalent in Thor 4?
Genres and subgenre are something of a science for Hollywood blockbusters, particularly with franchises like the MCU that include so many different kinds of stories in the superhero genre. Just recently, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was classified as a "Supernatural action-adventure," although various reports have detailed how it will also be Marvel’s first dip into the horror genre as well.
Although Thor: Love and Thunder is listed as an action-adventure movie, that doesn’t mean that comedy won’t play a major role in how its plot is presented. Waititi has teased how this new film will explore plenty of emotions on the spectrum, but he’s also noted how Chris Hemsworth gets to be even funnier this time than he was in Thor: Ragnarok.
As for the shortened plot description, the news release makes it clear that Gorr the God Butcher will make his presence felt as a serious threat, even as Jane Foster becomes the MCU’s newest powerful superhero with Mjolnir in hand. While Bale remains hidden in the film's promotional tour thus far, he'll be a power player to watch out for as the sequel's release date inches closer.
Thor: Love and Thunder will release in theaters on July 8.
