Just two months after its theatrical debut, Thor: Love and Thunder is streaming on Disney+. If you missed it in the theater, you’re in for the most fun MCU movie since Disney started streaming its big movies. Featuring the return of Taika Waititi as director and voicing Thor’s large pal Korg, plus Chris Hemsworth back as Thor and his old hammer Mjolnir passing him over for Natalie Portman′s Jane Foster to become the next Thor, it adapts the 1970s story by Donald Glut and Rick Hoberg in the pages of What If…? re-introduced by writer Jason Aaron in the monthly Thor comics. Death and dying is a big focus of this latest MCU entry, so it says a lot that it can balance that with some of the most fun adventure of all the films. Plus a great pair of goats.
Thor: Love and Thunder is almost here, featuring the return of Taika Waititi as director and voicing the large Thor pal Korg, plus the long-awaited scene of Chris Hemsworth′s Thor and his hammer Mjolnir passing him over for Natalie Portman′s Jane Foster to become the next Thor, as envisioned in the 1970s by Donald Glut and Rick Hoberg in the pages of What If…? and re-introduced only recently by writer Jason Aaron in the monthly Thor comics. Now we have the second trailer, featuring glimpses at even more fun–and Christian Bale and his black-and-white-toned villainy.
Here it is, the next trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder:
With the premiere of the first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder comes an onslaught of great tie-in toys. Funko Pops like Thor and his flying longship! Action figures of Natalie Portman’s Thor with Mjolnir! Our first good look at Christian Bale’s villain Gorr as an action figure!
Best of all, many are available for pre-order now here at Entertainment Earth and here at Amazon. Check out some great tie-ins below from Thor: Love and Thunder:
Thor: Love and Thunder is almost here, featuring the return of Taika Waititi as director and voicing the large Thor pal Korg, plus the long-awaited scene of Chris Hemsworth′s Thor and his hammer Mjolnir passing him over for Natalie Portman′s Jane Foster to become the next Thor, as envisioned in the 1970s by Donald Glut and Rick Hoberg in the pages of What If…? and re-introduced only recently by writer Jason Aaron in the monthly Thor comics. As we saw at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is the new King of Asgard. In this trailer she looks… bored with that. And Thor, sans eye patch, is trying to find himself, looking like he’s ready to drift off into the sunset. Feels like a bit of a downer. But it’s just a trailer. It does have swashbuckling Ravager pirate Thor flying a Viking Tours longboat led by goats Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, with a cocktail bar complete with neon sign, and his blue-haired girlfriend (is that Sif?).
It doesn’t give us a look at the villain Gorr played by Christian Bale yet, but here it is, the first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder:
I think they are just terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.
Since–like everyone else–actors are unable to do their jobs until the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, many have offered up some of their time over the past 120 to 150 days to provide fans with extra interviews, table reads (like the Community table read we discussed here at borg), and comic-cons at home, creating some content for the fan base we wouldn’t have otherwise had access to without this strange new normal of sheltering at home, social distancing, and masks. If you don’t subscribe to or know what Quibi is, you may have missed the latest–an ensemble of actors from popular to more obscure re-enacting scenes from Rob Reiner’s fan-favorite fantasy, comedy, and romance, The Princess Bride.
The style is all intentionally low budget–think of the kind of backyard films you might have made as a kid, and in fact, the film is called Home Movie: The Princess Bride. But it’s great fun, all filmed with quarantine safety rules in place (those filming together were already living together), and the kind of thing any classic film fan base would be overjoyed to see created. The best part is learning who had actual historical costumes in their closet to work with (Mad Men man Jon Hamm had a Renaissance shirt in his closet, as did comedic actors Neil Patrick Harris and David Spade, and Rogue One’s Diego Luna), those who didn’t, and who might be better actors than you’ve given them credit for.
Plenty of genre television is out there right now for viewers at home to consume. But discovering that one that is so exceptional is truly an exciting thing. So you might stumble through Tales from the Loop or Locke & Key or Briarpatch and give up before you even get to the halfway point, but then you land on The Mandalorian and know what great genre television has the potential to be.
The trailers look just like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story, which both reflected so much the original Star Wars from 1977 more than the other entries in the franchise. It’s not so much that Disney and Lucasfilm put together a movie based on every kid in the 1980s’ favorite background character, because George Lucas already made a movie about that guy, his dad, and a whole army of lookalikes. It’s hard to find a cooler character than Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back, until Lucas delivered on the fan service and inserted him into the original, special edition of Star Wars. It’s not only that. Or that, like Solo: A Star Wars Story, it’s clearly a full-fledged space Western. Or that fans get to see familiar elements of the franchise again, like carbon freezing, speeder bikes, scout walkers, patrol dewbacks, familiar bounty hunters, and Imperial bunkers hidden in the forest. And it’s not that the lead is played by its rising young actors known for badass characters, Pedro Pascal and co-star Gina Carano. Or that the series features a story by genre favorite Jon Favreau, with a host of episode directors like Thor: Ragnarok’sTaika Waititi, or noted Star Wars animaster Dave Filoni, or Solo director Ron’s daughter, actor Bryce Dallas Howard.
Well, it’s that, but not only that. It’s that added gravitas that Star Wars is better at than possibly any other franchise. It’s adding those dynamic, major character actors in supporting roles who make the magic happen sometimes even from the corner of the screen, from the likes of Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Christopher Lee, Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Linda Hunt, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Max von Sydow. Would Star Wars be Star Wars without the characters these actors brought to life? Definitely not.
For the second trailer for the new streaming series The Mandalorian, that means more Carl Weathers–who we saw in August’s first public trailer and April’s “sizzle reel” at the annual Star Wars convention. Along with Giancarlo Esposito and that toughest of older tough guys in movies, director and Jack Reacher villain Werner Herzog, we have plenty to look forward to. As the norm these days, unfortunately to watch this series you’ll need to subscribe to another streaming platform, this time that’s the Disney+ streaming service (or… once the Blu-ray arrives should you not want to feed the Disney machine any further).
So check it out–your next look at The Mandalorian, plus five new official posters:
It’s not so much that Disney and Lucasfilm put together a movie based on every kid in the 1980s’ favorite background character, because George Lucas already made a movie about that guy, his dad, and a whole army of lookalikes. It’s hard to find a cooler character than Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back, until Lucas delivered on the fan service and inserted him into the original, special edition of Star Wars. It’s not only that. Or that, like Solo: A Star Wars Story, it’s clearly a full-fledged space Western. Or that fans get to see familiar elements of the franchise again, like carbon freezing, speeder bikes, scout walkers, patrol dewbacks, familiar bounty hunters, and Imperial bunkers hidden in the forest. And it’s not that the lead is played by its rising young actors known for badass characters, Pedro Pascal and co-star Gina Carano. Or that the series features a story by genre favorite Jon Favreau, with a host of episode directors like Thor: Ragnarok’sTaika Waititi, or noted Star Wars animaster Dave Filoni, or Solo director Ron’s daughter, actor Bryce Dallas Howard.
Well, it’s that, but not only that.
It’s that added gravitas that Star Wars is better at than possibly any other franchise. It’s adding those dynamic, major character actors in supporting roles who make the magic happen sometimes even from the corner of the screen, from the likes of Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Christopher Lee, Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Linda Hunt, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Max von Sydow. Would Star Wars be Star Wars without the characters these actors brought to life? Definitely not.
For the latest trailer for the new streaming series The Mandalorian, that means Carl Weathers–who we saw in April’s “sizzle reel” at the annual Star Wars convention (yet to be posted by Lucasfilm, but check out a watchable version below), with a first look at Giancarlo Esposito, and that toughest of older tough guys in movies, director and Jack Reacher villain Werner Herzog. Not seen in this trailer, but expected to be added to the list, is Nick Nolte, who we can imagine could get us to that similar kind of character as Woody Harrelson or Paul Bettany in Solo.
So check it out–your next look at The Mandalorian:
Instead of what has been done at past panels at San Diego Comic-Con–having a panel for each or just a few major projects–Marvel Studios exec Kevin Feige was on-hand to get several announcements out the door and as many key cast members in and out of his single panel as possible. For the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase IV, that means tying in Disney’s (pay) streaming service with the movies. The big takeaway? New logos are pretty much all there is so far to share, plus key casting and timing announcements. And although the last Phase had some changes along the way, it looks as if these ten projects will round out the entirety of Marvel over the next few years. The biggest frustration for fans of the X-Men and Fantastic Four is why nobody at Marvel has been getting a head start on these two massively popular teams of characters–money is definitely going to be left on the table for the duration of Phase IV by pushing out these projects. Why aren’t these Priority #1 with someone at Disney in light of the long lead-time the corporation had for the Fox acquisition?
The new time table is straightforward: Black Widow movie (May 1, 2020), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series (Fall 2020), Eternals movie (November 6, 2020), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings movie (February 12, 2021), WandaVision TV series (Spring 2021), LokiTV series (Spring 2021), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessmovie (May 7, 2021), What If…?animated series (Summer 2021), HawkeyeTV series (Fall 2021), and Thor: Love and Thundermovie (November 5, 2021). The most eagerly awaited film after this year’s Avengers: Endgame was the hinted-at Guardians of the Galaxy/Thor or Asgardians of the Galaxy team-up movie, but Marvel still has not confirmed that project, unless it’s tied into the 2021 film. Also relegated to “in development” status: Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the next Tom Holland Spider-Man movie (Spider-Man is Iron Man’s replacement, right?). Silence seems to confirm the death of the Marvel Netflix universe of Luke Cage,The Punisher, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist, and maybe even Disney+ projects Runaways, Ghost Rider, and Helstrom. FX’s Legion was already announced as canceled, and we lost track of how many times The New Mutants movie has been pushed back. Even bigger unknowns are the next Ant-Man and The Wasp, which had Hank Pym actor Michael Douglas already discussing it as a prequel, and if anyone is thinking about Prince Namor the Submariner, nobody is talking. It begs the question: Does Disney have too much to handle now?
As a beginning Disney’s Marvel side seems to be taking a lead from its Star Wars division, with its offerings targeting a mix of fans old, new, and in-between. For the fans of the MCU so far you have plenty, a Black Widow (presumably prequel) and Thor movie as bookends for Phase IV, and TV series to keep alive Falcon, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Loki, Doctor Strange, and Hawkeye. For new audiences (and possibly much older comic book readers) there is Shang-Chi and the Eternals to get to know, along with the announcement that Luke Cage’s Mahershala Ali will be playing Blade in a reboot movie at the beginning of Phase V, the vampire hunter who, like Spider-Man, has already seen an entire series of movies outside of the MCU.
The details are an eclectic mix of things you might want, things you didn’t know you want, and things you won’t know what to make of:
Good news for fans of Avengers: Infinity War (and who isn’t?):The movie will be available on digital, Movies Anywhere/Vudu, and 4K UHD on July 31, with the Blu-ray release arriving two weeks later on August 14. Marvel announced yesterday that digital copies will include a bonus feature, a 30-minute discussion with Marvel Cinematic Universe directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, James Gunn, Ryan Coogler, Peyton Reed, and Taika Waititi. Amazon is now taking pre-orders for the HD and 4K/UHD streaming editions, as is Vudu. Vudu is also releasing a bundle with the first Avengers film and Age of Ultron. (Am I the only one who sees Captain America: Civil War as a key missing piece to this set?)
And just in case you missed them, Marvel Studios celebrated the 10th anniversary with a release of 33 character posters. You can probably expect that if the superhero isn’t in this line-up they won’t be key to the sequel next year–except for the lead superheroine of the one movie yet to be released, Captain Marvel, coming March 8, 2019. Check out all the posters below. The 32 characters include both those who lived and some who died under Thanos’s power, plus others who didn’t make it into Infinity War at all, like Valkyrie, Korg, Wong, and Hawkeye–really all but the Avengers support team members Happy and Agents Hill and Coulson. Marvel seems to recognize that fans still want to see more of the characters that made the posters.
Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman posted this trailer advertising the home release yesterday, and all the details known so far follow:
