Back in the spring, we learned that Natalie Portman was taking a break from Marvel movies—well, not so much taking one as having it imposed upon her. Jane Foster, Portman’s astrophysicist character in the first two Thor films, was nowhere to be found in any synopses or news about Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok that’s been released since production began. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige eventually explained that Foster (Portman) would not play a third wheel to the Hulk-Thor road-trip movie that is Ragnarok. Now Portman herself has spoken about her participation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is effectively over.
The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed Portman about her directorial debut, A Tale Of Love And Darkness. The actress says she felt compelled to adapt Amos Oz’s autobiographical work, which centers on a family living in Jerusalem in 1948, during the establishment of Israel. Some of the dialogue is in Hebrew with English subtitles, which Portman says might make the film more niche, but she isn’t worried about box-office revenues, telling the WSJ that she didn’t set out to make an Avengers film. Having heard the secret word, the publication asked Portman about the MCU, to which she replied: “As far as I know, I’m done. I don’t know if maybe one day they’ll ask for an Avengers 7 or whatever, I have no idea. But as far as I know, I’m done.”
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise—things were already looking pretty grim for Foster/Portman after Westworld’s Tessa Thompson was cast as Valkyrie, an Asgardian and potential love interest for the demigod. Still, we’ll kind of miss Jane, who was out doing potentially Nobel Prize-winning work while everyone was playing with Thor’s hammer.