Here’s What We Want out of Taika Watiti’s Thor 4

Yesterday, the joyous news that Taika Watiti will be directing Thor 4 broke to the delight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom. Watiti’s previous Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok, revitalized the Thor sub-franchise and was widely beloved by critics and fans. His return promises another adventure that fans will probably adore just as much as his first film.

The question remains, though, about what the film will center on. This is Marvel, after all, so we probably won’t know the full plot until the release day, but we can speculate based on comics, Disney+ shows, and what we know of based on previous Marvel films.

Hopefully, this will be a Thor film without the Guardians of the Galaxy drawing attention away from him. When we last saw him, Thor was flying off across the galaxy with the Guardians, which many assumed meant that Thor would be present in the third film in the GotG series, and any forthcoming Thor film would have to take into account his adventures in Guardians 3.

At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Thor abdicates the rule of Asgard to Valkyrie, stating that he wants to figure out what he wants to be without defining himself by the throne. That means that Thor 4 will find Thor in a new place. He won’t be supporting the Guardians, or be the comic relief of the Avengers. Instead, he’ll have a new idea of who he wants to be for whatever story faces him.

Obviously, Valkyrie will play a large role in Thor 4. A deleted Avengers: Endgame scene shoots down the possibility of romance between her and Thor, so she’s free to romance whoever. We also know that Valkyrie’s bisexuality was supposed to be made clear to audiences. Hopefully, Marvel’s announced intentions to put queer characters in their films means that she’ll have a girlfriend in the next Thor film. Please, Marvel, let Watiti give Valkyrie a girlfriend.

Since Thor will have to swing by Earth to pick Valkyrie up for adventures, we could maybe see a Revengers reunion with Bruce Banner. It would be a shame to just casually write Bruce out after Endgame, especially as they finally hit on how to write him properly.

Of course, we can’t have the Revengers without a certain trickster god. Yes, Loki is technically dead right now, but as we saw, a version of him is flying throughout an alternate universe with the Tesseract. Could Loki dimension hop and wind up in the MCU prime timeline? This could be an interesting setup, as Loki would not be the quasi-reformed character he was at the time of his death. He’d still be at his prime asshole period. Thor would be faced with trying to get through to Loki, and that sets up some interesting character beats.

In terms of villains, I would love to see Amora the Enchantress step up as the villainess of the piece. Loki and Amora could team up to take over the galaxy, with Thor left to convince his newly returned baby brother to join the good guys once again. Watiti gave us a flawless female villain (and villain in general) with Hela in Ragnarok. If anyone could give us Amora, it would be him.

Another Thor character who could appear and steal audiences’s hearts is Beta Ray Bill. Bill has my favorite quote of any superhero ever—“If nothing but what we make matters, then brothers let us make it good.”—and could be a breakout hit in the vein of Rocket Raccoon. For those not in the know, Beta Ray Bill is a monstrous-looking character who is inherently good; he can even wield Mjolnir. Marvel has made a talking raccoon, a talking tree, and Korg popular characters. Beta Ray Bill’s weird appearance isn’t a roadblock to popularity.

Of course, we can’t know much of anything about the plot of Thor 4 just yet—and we probably won’t until at least Saturday at Marvel’s Hall H comic con panel. Marvel clearly wanted to drum up hype, which is why we found out this movie exists days before the big panel. Hopefully, we’ll find out more this weekend.

Are you excited for Thor 4: More Thor? Do you need Loki to show up, or are you more excited about the possibility of the Enchantress or Beta Ray Bill making an appearance?

(image: Marvel)

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