MCU Can Do Thor: Love and Thunder secretly set up Thing Iron Man’s

Thor: Love and Thunder secretly set up Thor’s best MCU ending, and the franchise can do one thing that Iron Man’s Avengers: Endgame death failed to. Thor: Love and Thunder sets up the best possible ending for Thor in the MCU, allowing for one thing that Iron Man’s Avengers: Endgame death wasn’t able to achieve. After surviving the events of the Infinity Saga, the God of Thunder continues his MCU journey with his fourth standalone film, which pits him against Gorr the God Butcher.

Luckily for the Asgardian prince, he gets help from New Asgard’s King Valkyrie and Jane Foster, who wields Mjölnir as Mighty Thor. While the titular superhero again survives for future adventures in the MCU, Thor: Love and Thunder establishes how he could one day exit the franchise. Thor: Love and Thunder sets up the best possible ending for Thor in the MCU, allowing for one thing that Iron Man’s Avengers: Endgame death wasn’t able to achieve. After surviving the events of the Infinity Saga, the God of Thunder continues his MCU journey with his fourth standalone film, which pits him against Gorr the God Butcher. Luckily for the Asgardian prince, he gets help from New Asgard’s King Valkyrie and Jane Foster, who wields Mjölnir as Mighty Thor. While the titular superhero again survives for future adventures in the MCU, Thor: Love and Thunder establishes how he could one day exit the franchise.

Chris Hemsworth’s Thor will have to leave the MCU, the same way some of his fellow original Avengers did in Avengers: Endgame, most notably Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man. In that 2019 blockbuster, the MCU’s founding hero ended his arc by sacrificing himself to defeat Thanos. Iron Man’s death was tragic and poetic and wrapped up his personal story in an emotionally satisfying way. Thor comes out of the events of Thor: Love and Thunder unscathed, the movie hints at how to end his journey in the MCU, and it could top Iron Man’s demise in Avengers: Endgame.

Love & Thunder Makes Endgame’s Divisive Fat Thor Story Worse to justify Avengers: Endgame’s divisive Fat Thor narrative, and if anything, it made the MCU’s problem even worse. Thor: Love and Thunder makes the divisive “Fat Thor” storyline from Avengers: Endgame even worse. In Thor: Love and Thunder, the titular God of Thunder returns to the MCU for the first time in the post-Infinity Saga era as he fights a new adversary in Gorr the God Butcher. However, the longtime Avenger looks significantly different from his last appearance in the franchise as he’s no longer “Fat Thor” in Thor: Love and Thunder.

After his catastrophic failure to stop Thanos’s snap in Avengers: Infinity War and the realization that there was no way to undo its effects, Thor experienced deep depression. This caused him to fully check out from all of his responsibilities, including ruling New Asgard. He also stopped taking care of himself, resulting in him gaining weight and becoming “Fat Thor.” This was one of the most divisive plotlines in Avengers: Endgame, as it was mostly viewed as a way for the movie to get cheap laughs as the God of Thunder’s new look became the butt of several jokes.

Thor: Love and Thunder post-credits scene reveals, after her death while fighting as Mighty Thor, Jane Foster enters Valhalla, welcomed by Heimdall. It’s possible that Frigga, Loki, and everyone else Thor has lost are in there, as well. At the end of the God of Thunder’s MCU arc, he could die in battle, perhaps sacrificing himself for the greater good just like what Iron Man did in Avengers: Endgame. However, unlike Tony Stark’s cut Soul World scene where he met grown-up Morgan Stark, Thor could be depicted entering Valhalla and reuniting with Jane and all the important people in his life that have died. This would be the best ending for Thor, who has been in the MCU since its earliest days. This would also allow Marvel Studios to correctly execute the send-off they wanted for Iron Man.

Thor’s MCU arc is currently 1500 years old, but he could live for far longer. There’s a possibility that Marvel Studios keeps him for as long as possible and waits for him to die a natural death like Odin had in Thor: Ragnarok. Otherwise, he could die in battle the same way Iron Man did or sacrifice himself for a mission like Black Widow in Avengers: Endgame. For now, however, it’s unlikely that the God of Thunder will be leaving the MCU anytime soon. Thor: Love and Thunder even confirmed his return in a later project, although it didn’t reveal when his next outing in the franchise will be. As one of the only three remaining original Avengers post-Infinity Saga still active in the MCU, alongside Hulk and Hawkeye, the God of Thunder can function as the franchise’s elder statesman moving forward.

Thor: Love and Thunder, Thor’s main priority seems to be to raise Gorr the God Butcher’s daughter, Love. Whether that means that he re-settles back in Asgard or they will go on galactic adventures are unknown at this point. Regardless, it’s clear that he still has a lot of stories left to tell in the MCU.

Thor: Love and Thunder had the chance to finally justify the God of Thunder’s physical change. Unfortunately, it not only failed to do just that but it made it even worse. The movie briefly featured Avengers: Endgame’s Fat Thor before he transformed back to the character’s original physique, and the way it explained how the God of Thunder achieved his new buffer physique is a whole other problem. The hero went through an intense workout to lose weight as part of his healing journey and also addressed his mental health through meditation. This transformation was only shown through a quick montage and barely touched on the ups and downs of such a difficult task. Marvel Studios could have instead devoted the God of Thunder’s entire Thor: Love and Thunder arc to this narrative to make sure that it was realistically handled.

Love & Thunder Could Have Done Much More on Thor’s healing journey in Thor: Love and Thunder would have also effectively made his dynamic with Gorr the God Butcher better. Like the God of Thunder, the villain’s arc is defined by tragedy after he heartbreakingly lost his daughter at the start of the movie. As someone who has experienced a string of losses over the years with the death of his whole family, Thor could have used this to make a connection with Gorr. The consecutive heartbreaks that the Avenger suffered toward the end of the Infinity Saga made him blinded with rage, not wanting anything but to exact revenge against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Killing the Titan at the start of Avengers: Endgame, however, didn’t give Thor the satisfaction that he thought it would. This was how he could have convinced Gorr to stop hunting down the gods.