All the Thor: Love And Thunder Easter eggs and references explained

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Thor: Love And Thunder.

Asgard’s mightiest son officially returned to action this week with the arrival of Thor: Love And Thunder, giving the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe a chance to veer away, at least for now, from the multiversal concerns of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and Loki, and instead zero in on director Taika Waititi’s quirky corner of the cosmos.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is one of the longest-running characters still headlining his own films in the MCU, as well as a founding member of the Avengers and a stalwart of Marvel Comics since 1962. That means there are plenty of inter-filmic connections, comic book lore and Easter eggs to detect, dissect and puzzle over.

Toward that end, The A.V. Club has assembled a breakdown of references great and small to make navigating the godly realms as easy, for casual fans and MCU die-hards alike, as if you had your own rainbow-hued bifrost bridge.

Hammering out the basics

A New Sound: Waititi—who reinvented the hero in Thor: Ragnarok by taking a faster-paced, more irreverent approach—signals right out of the gate that we’re decidedly in his MCU neighborhood. The director uses heavy metal guitar riffs in the opening instead of Marvel’s usually orchestral fanfare, a precursor to the heavy presence of hard-rocking needle-drops by Guns N’ Roses and others throughout the film.

More On Gorr: In the prologue, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) is introduced as the film’s primary Big Bad—his first appearance in the MCU after debuting in the pages of Thor’s comic book during the long and influential run of writer Jason Aaron, in tandem with artist Esad Ribic, nearly a decade ago. Gorr’s origins here, as a devout alien forsaken by his cruel, indifferent gods, largely parallel the comics, although his ill-fated daughter is given a more prominent role on screen. Also different in the comics: Gorr, in his mission to eliminate the godly pantheons across the cosmos, had a violent clash with the young Thor in medieval Iceland. Although that doesn’t happen here we do get brief glimpses of the youthful Thunder God (played by Hemsworth’s son Tristan) – including one in full, original Jack Kirby-designed regalia—during Korg’s recap of Thor’s history.

Necrosword Unsheathed: Gorr’s weapon, the Necrosword, is also a nod to the comics, where it’s more properly known as All-Black the Necrosword, and has ties to the same symbiote world that birthed Spider-Man’s alien nemesis Venom—a detail which is, for now at least, a moot point in the MCU, given the multiversal separation of the cinematic universe Tom Hardy’s Venom inhabits.

Korg’s Recap: The narration by Korg—the good-natured rocky sidekick Thor picked up in Ragnarok, based on stony aliens he battled early in his comic book run—neatly gets the audience up to speed on Thor’s journey, from infancy through the events of his most recent Avengers adventures, which unsurprisingly took a heavy toll on his mind, body and spirit. Korg’s recap also fills in exactly what led to the demise Thor’s romance with astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), his paramour from the first two Thor films.

Fun Fact: Another of Thor’s old flames, the wolf woman, was played by Chris Hemsworth’s wife, actress Elsa Pataky.

Thor and Star Lord: Korg also reminds us that when last seen at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Thor had forged a bond with the Guardians of the Galaxy—and a rivalry with team leader Star Lord (Chris Pratt)—and together they set off into space in search of adventure. They’ve clearly found it by the beginning of Love And Thunder, and by the time they part ways Thor and Star Lord appear to have formed a genuine, if still competitive, friendship, while they commiserate over personal losses after Endgame.

Jane Foster gets a Mighty new look

As we re-encounter Jane Foster on Earth (she was last seen in Thor: The Dark World, with a time-traveling flashback glimpse in Endgame and alt-universe appearance in What If…), she’s in an even more foreboding place than Thor, coping with a terminal cancer prognosis. At her side is her friend Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), Jane’s loyal and irreverent sidekick in the first two Thor films. Darcy previously resurfaced in WandaVision when she was tasked by S.W.O.R.D. to help unravel the mystery of what Wanda Maximoff had done to Westport, ultimately turning against S.W.O.R.D.’s corrupt leadership in a bid to help Wanda return to reality. Also briefly glimpsed speaking with Jane via video connection was her eccentric friend and colleague Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), another veteran of both Thor and Avengers films and recently name-checked in a recent episode of Ms. Marvel.

Like Gorr, Jane’s cancer plot line derives from Aaron’s lengthy stint writing the Thor comic book: the character has been an on- and off- love interest for the Thunder God since his introduction 60 years ago (qualifying her as a Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation). And picking up on a speculative story concept first introduced in a 1978 issue of What If?, Aaron reintroduced her with the breast cancer diagnosis in 2013. At the time, Thor considered himself unworthy to wield his magical hammer Mjolnir (similar to the MCU’s Thor in the first film), and a mystery woman eventually revealed to be Jane took up the hammer, the name and the power of the God of Thunder, soon earning a place amongst the Avengers.

The downside in Aaron’s story was that harnessing the godly power of Mjolnir allows Jane to avoid and ignore the serious ravages her cancer is taking on her mortal body when not in Thor form, as occurs in the film. Even worse, her mystical power actually makes her cancer worse.

It’s worth noting that in Love And Thunder, it’s Thor’s urging of Mjolnir to protect Jane that enables her to reassemble the MCU’s Mjolnir (shattered in Ragnarok by Thor’s half-sister, the death goddess Hela) and harness her worthiness. Previously, the only other individual the hammer found worthy enough to wield it was Steve Rogers, the first Captain America.

The New Asgardians

Valkyrie’s New Role: After Asgard was decimated during Ragnarok and many of its survivors were slaughtered by Thanos in Infinity War, the remaining Asgardians found a home on Earth at a seaside village in Norway, home of the Norse mythology built around them centuries earlier, and now thriving years after Thanos’ snap. The Valkyrie Brunnhilde (Tessa Thompson)—the former Asgardian shield maiden-turned-fatalistic galactic mercenary-turned-Thor ally—serves as their regent. In the comics, Valkyrie was a brief Thor love interest who emerged as her a superhero in her own right and a prominent member of The Defenders, and she rode a winged steed named Aragorn. The MCU’s Valkyrie appeared astride Aragorn during the Battle of Earth in Endgame, and he remains her preferred mode of transportation in Love And Thunder.

Fun Fact: in the comics Aragorn was originally ridden by Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, before being entrusted to Valkyrie. With Kit Harrington having joined the MCU as a pre-superheroic Whitman in Eternals, the characters’ stewardship of Aragorn may eventually be reversed on the big screen.

The Play’s The Thing: The Asgardian players introduced in Ragnarok—including cameo-ing Matt Damon as Actor Loki, Sam Neill as Actor Odin and Chris Hemsworth’s brother Luke as Actor Thor, joined here by Melissa McCarthy as Actor Hela—swiftly recap key moments in the prior film, amusingly reminding us that Hela destroyed Mjolnir. Another fun fact: The play’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-him stage manager is played by McCarthy husband and frequent co-writer and director Ben Falcone.

Meeting Miek: Also living among the New Asgardians is Miek, who like Korg and Thor was one of the prisoners forced into the gladiatorial Contest of Champions on the planet Sakaar in Ragnarok, and who later joined the Asgardians in Endgame’s Battle of Earth. It’s revealed here the Miek is female, or is now identifying as female, and serving as a chief aide to Valkyrie.

God wars

Sif Returns: As Thor rushes headlong into battle with Gorr, he is unexpectedly reunited with the Asgardian warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander), his longtime friend and battle companion who harbors romantic feelings for him. Sif had not been seen in Thor’s orbit since The Dark World (due to Alexander’s commitments on the series Blindspot) but had shown up in two (now canonically questionable) episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as alt-universe appearances in What If…? Her injury at the hands of Gorr—resulting in a lost arm—echoes the fates of many an MCU character, including The Winter Soldier and Ulysses Klaue, which in turn is an acknowledged behind-the-scenes nod to the limb-lopping of the original Star Wars trilogy.

An Axe To Grind: Embarking on his quest to battle with Gorr, Thor adopts the latest in a string of costume variations in the MCU, and this somewhat grand, brightly colored and shiny-armored version harkens back to a dynamic comic book design first introduced in 1987 by legendary Thor writer and artist Walter Simonson. Thor’s axe Stormbreaker, introduced in Infinity War after the destruction of Mjolnir, also comes from Simonson, introduced in the comics as an alternate magical hammer given to the alien Beta Bill, who had proven himself worthy of the power of Thor after defeating the Thunder God in battle and assuming his hammer and his powers.

Got Their Goats: The pair of screaming goats gifted to Thor by the alien culture he and the Guardians “rescued” are direct references to Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher, two Asgardian goats who pulled Thor’s chariot that the often whimsically minded Simonson introduced into the comics during his defining run in the ’80s. Yet another fun fact: they’re based on Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, two mystical goats who perform similar services for Thor in Norse mythology.

What’s In A Name: When the two Thors, Valkyrie, and Korg set off to seek Omnipotent City with goats in tow, they’re aboard the Asgardian Viking ship Aesir, which is the Norse word for “pantheon.”

Heimdall’s Offspring: Among the Asgardian children abducted by Gorr is Astrid—although, in a winking nod to the film’s abundance of GnR music, he prefers to be called Axl—the son of Heimdall (Idris Elba), the former guardian of Asgard’s space-spanning bifrost bridge who, before being executed by Thanos in Infinity War, absorbed the bifrost’s transportational abilities himself. As the film reveals, Axl, too, is empowered with the bifrost.

Omnipotence City: Home to the parliament of gods, the city has its origins in Jason Aaron’s original comic book storyline featuring Gorr. Its central leader is the hirsute Greek god monarch Zeus (Russell Crowe), whose Marvel Comics roots go even deeper: the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby interpretation of the deity bowed in 1965, heading the Olympian pantheon that often come into conflict with Odin and the Asgardian gods. Zeus’ vast powers include control of lightning and thunder, though he doesn’t require any special weaponry to focus his abilities, unlike his MCU counterpart. This more petulant version is reminiscent of the Zeus featured in writer-artist Bob Layton’s seemingly non-canonical but very funny Hercules mini-series of the 1980s.

Enter Eternity: Another cosmic-level comic book creation, Eternity, glimpsed fleetingly at the film’s start, emerges as a key figure in Gorr’s quest to destroy the gods. Eternity was created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in 1965, gradually unveiled as an abstract but powerful cosmic entity who often trades fate-of-the-universe-saving favors with Doctor Strange. He’s so powerful, in fact, that he serves as something of a guardian of the multiverse—Ah-ha! You just knew the multiverse would figure in here somewhere, didn’t you? Eternity has long played a role in Marvel Comics’ most mind-bending storylines, and his MCU incarnation resides in a realm that appears to feature oblique visual references to similarly cosmic characters, some previously seen in the MCU like the Celestials, and others making what appears to be their debut, like the Living Tribunal.

Saying Goodbye? As Love And Thunder reaches its climax, Jane, the double-edge nature of her Thor powers and her cancer revealed, finally faces her fate, dying with Thor by her side—unlike the comics, where Thor reclaimed his worthiness, along with the mantle of Thor, while Jane focused on resuming her chemotherapy. But there is one last shoe to drop…

Where the rainbow bridge takes us from here

Before we get to that, there’s a matter of the first post-credits scene, in which Zeus, seething with wounded pride, vents his spleen and tasks one of his Olympian subjects to deliver vengeance onto Thor. That Olympian is, in fact, Zeus’ half-human son, the demigod Hercules (yeah, it’s the Roman spelling, but it’s become Marvel tradition), who makes his MCU debut here, played by Ted Lasso fan favorite Brett Goldstein. Hercules has a long and storied history in the comic book universe, starting out as a rival to Thor and eventually going on to become a loyal and stalwart member of the Avengers, despite being more than a little overconfident, or over reliant on his brute strength over common sense. Often played for sly laughs, Hercules promises to be a raucous addition to the MCU.

And finally, the final post-credit scene reveals Jane emerging in a serene and beautiful mystic realm, looking fully restored. She’s greeted by the previously deceased Heimdall, who promises that there is a greater and more urgent fate ahead for Jane. The tease suggests that, though she has passed, Jane may follow a path similar to her comic book counterpart and become the new Valkyrie, imbued with the powers of Asgardian shield maidens that bore the dead to Valhalla, which just may be the place she arrived. The MCU remains one massive, sprawling sage where characters can show up where they’re least expected, and where Jane’s new journey will take her is, for the moment, anyone’s guess.