It’s already well established that Thor: Love & Thunder will see the arrival of Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor, complete with her own Mjolnir. The questions of worthiness and narrative setup are enough to generate thousands of fan conversations and debate, but there’s also a major logistical issue here: the question of access. And now, concept art for Thor’s fourth solo movie has established that Jane’s Mjolnir will actually be the same as the one destroyed by Hela.
Thor: Ragnarok used the destruction of Thor’s Mjolnir by Cate Blanchett’s firebrand villain, Hela, as a means to immediately establish her threat level. It was her announcement, the same way Thanos squeezing the life out of Loki was for Avengers: Infinity War. Walking that back to give Jane Mjolnir is a bold statement considering what it means both for Hela’s power level and Jane’s, and the concept art showing Mjolnir to be reformed from its broken parts does heavily suggest that. And on top of that, it also comes with its own problem. And in this case, it’s more a case of geography.
In Thor: Ragnarok, Anthony Hopkins’ Odin has exiled himself to a nondescript part of Scandinavia, isolated in peace in the wake of shaking off Loki’s nefarious enchantment. Thor and Loki only find him thanks to Doctor Strange’s magic, and Mjolnir’s destruction happens in the same location. The idea that Jane would come into contact with the shards of Mjolnir – or that there’d be a rumored shrine to Odin on the spot – makes little sense. But that’s exactly what Love & Thunder concept art has seemingly revealed, with Mjolnir visibly carrying the scars of being destroyed by Hela and put back together. And worse still, that tease compromises the All-Father’s own isolation and Thor 4 will have to account for it satisfyingly.
Odin chose to hide in quiet contemplation after breaking out of Loki’s enchantment. He knew he was living the last days of his lengthy life, and what would come once his magic faded and Blanchett’s terrifying Hela was free. His decision to isolate himself on the Norwegian, remaining in exile and insisting Doctor Strange tell no one of his whereabouts was as good as an incantation protecting his whereabouts. The fact that Strange could only find him by taking a strand of Thor’s hair suggests further that the cliff top was not some well-known holiday destination. It was nondescript, random by design so that Odin would never be found. The idea that such a place would just be found again to erect a shrine where Mjolnir’s shards would sit unmoved is illogical at best. Not to mention the fact that leaving magical artifacts (no matter how enchanted) in a field unguarded would be incredibly stupid. Who is to say some magical threat wouldn’t find the valuable metal and retrieve it?
Thor: Love & Thunder needs to explain or retcon the protections around Odin’s location before it’s believable that Jane would be able to visit the shrine and have the shards of Mjolnir reform for her Mighty Thor transformation. Surely it would have been more fitting for Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster to have somehow summoned the shards herself, were she deemed worthy by Odin? It’s hard to understand why she’d even visit Odin’s shrine given their only meeting had resulted in him insulting and then imprisoning her. That’s hardly the setup for a fond relationship. In short, the Mighty Thor story setup may be very cool and the idea of Mjolnir returning likewise, there are big questions to ask of how Thor: Love & Thunder will do it without opening a plot hole or compromising previous movies.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
- The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
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