Natalie Portman says Thor: The Dark World being a critical flop didn’t affect her decision to return to the MCU
Spoken like someone who was in the Star Wars prequels!
Aux News Thor
Though the upcoming Thor: Love And Thunder is set to introduce some new faces to the nine realms, including Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher and Russell Crowe as Zeus, there’s certainly no shortage of intrigue when it comes to the return of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster. After being absent during 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, the character is coming back in a big way: with her own superpowers, wielding the enchanted hammer Mjolnir.
Jane was introduced in 2011's Thor as an ambitious scientist who ends up becoming a little more involved with the titular character than she expects when the Asgardian prince falls to Earth. Portman reprised the role in the 2013 sequel Thor: The Dark World, which is widely considered to be one of the worst in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When Jane didn’t return for the third installment, some viewers speculated that the previous project’s negative reception had soured the Black Swan actress on the franchise. In a new interview with Variety, Portman says that she was able to easily shrug off The Dark World’s bad reviews.
“I mean, I had it with The Professional too,” she says of her 1994 film debut, released when she was a young teenager. “It was slaughtered critically, and now, despite having been in Marvel and Star Wars movies, it’s the main thing people come up to me about. That and Star Wars are two examples of things that when they came out, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is a disaster.’ And then 20 years later—actually, 30 years later for The Professional—it’s beloved.”
Of course, the Star Wars prequels, in which Portman portrayed Padmé Amidala, have also been in the news lately, with the launch of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. Despite those films’ similar poor reception, returning stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen have spoken warmly about stepping back into their roles and having been part of fans’ childhoods.
With writer/director Taika Waititi eager to bring back a leveled-up Jane for Love And Thunder, returning to the MCU was a no-brainer for Portman.
“I mean, it’s always amazing to see yourself, even if only for a split second, in a Marvel film, because you’re in places that you’ve never actually been before,” she says to Variety. “It’s like seeing photos from a vacation that you never took or something.”
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Coming in 2024 to Disney+: Padme: The Senate Years.
Somehow Padme returned.
Padme returns from the dead, briefly visits Leia age 5and shows her some images of feelings before dying.
*cough*forceghost*cough*
I they actually already did that in the comics.
The dead speak!
blah blah blah . . . granddaughter!
Expanding on the best parts of the prequels! I mean, other than the fart jokes.
Time for a redemption Jar Jar series.
No, Jar Jar as the Sith over-overlord pulling everyone’s strings would be way wilder and way more fun!
Orrrrr…“Todd Phillip’s Jar Jar”Galactic society makes fun/mocks the awkward and clownish former head of the Senate/adventurer to the breaking point. Jar Jar ends up killing some Camino investment bros, endearing him to the galactic 99%. All over the Galaxy, Jar Jar mask wearing protesters rally against the elite. Oh, and Jar Jar ends up murdering his abusive mother.“Meesa put a smile on your face” as he maniacally hoots/laughs and dances away from Republic police.
Don’t you mean Darth Jar Jar?
We kinda already got that with the Clone Wars cartoon. We also got to see Padme hanging out with hot politician dudes, making Anakin jealous, which made his fall to the Dark Side much more believable than what we see in Ep. III alone.
You know, I would totally watch that. A show about Padme fighting for rights in the senate (and against things like the more clones bill that we see in the Clone Wars cartoon), that shines light on the good and bad people on both sides of the conflict (separatists weren’t ALL evil sith after all), and has Padme off blasting people and investigating conspiracies in between court appearances?GIVE THIS TO ME!Heck, you could even use it to make Padme and Anakin seem more of a couple than they do in the movies (again something that the Clone Wars cartoon did nicely from time to time).This show sounds much more exciting to me than Andor, not going to lie to you.
Clone wars, you’re talking about clone wars.
Padme: The Senate Years:
“What are we doing on Tattooine?!”
“I vote not to censure my colleague the Honorable Senator Palpatine. Yes, he is actually a Sith who wants to bring down the Republic, but it would be divisive and against the principles of good bipartisanship to take action against him.”
Oh god, Padme is Space Susan Collins?
The West Wing… of the Theed Palace
Thor: The Dark World is the worst Thor and nearly the worst MCU movie and isn’t even that bad. That portal jumping finale was great and a couple of awesome bits. “How’s space?” “Space is fine.” Any more Darcy can’t make anything terrible.It’s actually penned by the Captain America/ Infinity War / Endgame writers, I think it’s only surprising that it doesn’t have a sort of different thematic hook those movies do ala spy movie or heist flick. It’s basically just weird space adventure movie.
I like THOR: THE DARK WORLD. The scene on the boat with Thor & Loki where they finally hash it out is one of my favorite MCU scenes ever. The heartache when Thor says “I wish I could trust you” is Hemsworth’s first great moment in the role.Also the climax is an intergalactic French door farce, so that’s fun.
Me too! I think the film gets a lot of undeserved hate.I would rank Iron Man 2 lower than The Dark World, at the very least.
I thought Thor 2 was fine and Thor Ragnorok horribly overrated (I used to read a lot of and still have a book of Norse mythology and it can’t hold a candle to the stories from back then. Ancient myths and legends were truly wild back then!).
I had to let go any thought of Viking lore to finally enjoy Thor as a character. But Hemsworth nails the role, and obviously had fun with it.
It has a lot of really great moments. They’re just in service to a kind of mediocre main plot, which is all anyone remembers.
Frigga’s funeral is hauntingly gorgeous, and the effect is has on the rest of the family is played extremely well, and it was great for the strength of that scene and Rene Russo’s performance to finally get recognized in Endgame.
yes it definitely has some great scenes, i especially liked Mjolnir constantly redirecting itself as Thor & Kurse teleport around. And i think thor hung mjolnir on a coat rack at one point.The main problem was bad guy Malekith was such a bore, the choice to have him speak elvish made the role a disastrous waste of Chris Eccleston. the “spaceships” fighting in Asgard wasn’t the worst idea but the execution didn’t really work for me, aside from the one bit of Heimdall taking a ship down single-handedly. A lot of potential in this movie. i tend to blame director Alan Taylor but of course no idea what kind of studio notes he was getting etc
I don’t think we would have got THOR: RAGNAROK without THOR: THE DARK WORLD.There were two really good things in Thor 2 imo, and that was the dialogue scenes between Loki and Thor and the Thor’s hammer not knowing which direction to go to get to Thor bit in the final fight lol.And Thor 3’s main focus is basically on Thor and Loki’s relationship (which I think Thor 2 helped cement the feel of).Though, I do agree with the majority that the rest of that film is baaaaaaad (obviously that’s just opinion though, it’s okay if ours differs lol).
I’m with you. It’s not bad, it’s just not as good as other MCU films. It has some fantastic character building moments and was pivotal for the Infinity saga. The villain, while being a real threat, was kind of meh. Eccleston did a good job, but I think they should have toned down his look a bit. He looked really uncomfortable every time he was on screen and couldn’t emote properly due to all the prosthetics/CGI overlay on his face.
The Dark World wasn’t terrible and certainly was a fun movie. Considering it came early in the MCU, it was pretty good and honestly is better than a few other movies that came later. It’s certainly not at the bottom of the MCU pile and better than most of the DCU crap.
I’m just a few years younger than Natalie Portman. I recall The Professional always being thought of as a good movie. Her acting career is so incredibly odd to me though. Like I still can’t decide if I think she’s a good actress of a terrible actress. She seems to do a lot more horrible acting in awful movies than top tier acting, but every now and then she’ll do something hugely critically acclaimed. Then back to schlock for years again.And it’s not like Nic Cage. With him, even when he’s at his worst, he’s still absolutely going for it. She shows up and sleepwalks through long swaths of her career.
Yeah, she’s talking nonsense here, or the reception was very different in the US. In Europe at least, it was well received and became an instant ‘cult classic’
I think she got The Professional confused with Beautiful Girls.Nats, one has a plant and the other has apps. Though both have a weird sexual tension between an older man and a young girl. Easy mistake.
I fell in love with her in The Professional, one of my favorite movies and the beginning of my love for Luc Besson, lol thankfully we are the same age and I saw it when it came out so it wasn’t creepy LOL. I think she is a pretty good actress overall, I just think she sometimes makes poor decisions for roles, or is pushed by her team into poor roles, I’m look at you SW prequel trilogy.
She needs a good director/script or she is pretty average, sometimes pretty bland. If she takes a job for the money, you can tell, which is what happened with Thor and it’s why she phones it in Thor 1 and 2.
Portman is a horrid actress. I wish they would of casts a better actress for the role.
The pay is good, so they will work.
Inside Natalie Portman’s head:
“Should I be in another Thor movie? Hmmm, the last one was not well received by the critical journalists, but on the other foot…they are going to pay me cash money…”
Plus, they will paying out for a good PT and nice food to get a hench body.
I am the same age and I remember Leon/The Professional being widely lauded, still to this day.
Considering how much it looked like she phoned in her performance in Thor: The Dark World, I doubt she cared if it was a flop or not. She wanted a big paycheck and didn’t really care about the rest. She’s only coming back for Thor: Love and Thunder for a few possible reasons; she sees that the MCU has actually put out some really good movies that she wouldn’t mind having her name tied to, she see’s that Taika Waititi is directing and wants to work with a great director, and most importantly, she wants another big pay day. Just hope she doesn’t phone it in this time.
I still maintain Thor: TDW would have been much better as a musical.
I’m disappointed Your Highness didn’t come up.