Marvel Studios is still riding off the highs of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which became the sixth highest grossing movie in history and changed the game for the superhero genre. Now, even with Doctor Strange 2 looming over the horizon for the MCU, Marvel fans have their attention on July's Thor: Love and Thunder, whose promotional tour just showed its first signs of life.
Chris Hemsworth's fourth solo movie just delivered its first trailer, and even though it broke the record for shortest promotional tour in MCU history, the footage made its mark on fans quickly. The 89 seconds of material showcased just how wild Thor's first story in a post-Avengers: Endgame world will be, shining a light on both the Earthly and cosmic themes pushing the MCU forward.
Thor: Love and Thunder will tie in heavily to its surrounding MCU counterparts, most notably including Endgame and next year's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The sequel's first trailer even followed up on one of the first MCU nods to its story, which came in the final Marvel movie of 2021.
Thor 4 Expands on Spidey Easter Egg
The first trailer for Marvel Studios' Thor: Love and Thunder touched on an Easter egg from Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: No Way Home.
In one of No Way Home's first news scenes looking back at Mysterio's death, a message saying "Political turmoil continues in New Asgard" appeared across the bottom of the screen as a headline:
Following up on this message, Thor: Love and Thunder's first trailer showed Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie at the head of a table in some sort of formal meeting. The signage around the group seems to indicate that it's over some kind of energy crisis:
Although the newly-adorned King Valkyrie is dressed to the nines in this shot, she seems to want nothing to do with whatever she's having to sit through at this meeting. A wider view of this shot also includes Miek in a new business-formal look, helping the King of Asgard in her duties:
New Asgard's Growing Pains on Earth?
Spider-Man: No Way Home had its own incredibly difficult task, bringing together three generations of web-slingers into one adventure full of Multiversal mayhem. While it managed to do that in almost every conceivable way, this Easter egg got eagle-eyed fans thinking deeply about what could be on the way in the return to New Asgard in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Now that Valkyrie is in a position as Asgard's new leader, she's learning about what it really means to be the face of an entire nation, which comes on top of adjusting to a completely new home on Earth. New Asgard was also shown to be something of a tourist attraction in its second appearance after Avengers: Endgame, which will likely be its source of income to keep its people taken care of.
While it's unclear how big of a plot point this turmoil will be after its tease in last year's Spider-Man threequel, New Asgard will unquestionably play host to plenty of conflict, both political and battle-centric. The politics in play allow Tessa Thompson to explore a whole new side of Valkyrie as a leader, all before she shows her might in the eventual fight against Gorr the God Butcher.
Thor: Love and Thunder will debut in theaters on July 8.
