Clearly, enjoying Padmé Amidala did not scare Natalie Portman away from franchise work altogether, however her subsequent brush with one was rather more sophisticated. In 2011, she joined Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, and Kat Dennings within the Marvel Cinematic Universe origin story “Thor,” enjoying Jane Foster, the love curiosity to Hemsworth’s titular Norse god. After showing within the much-derided sequel “Thor: The Darkish World” in 2013, she stepped away from the franchise fully, to the purpose the place a scene involving a quick glimpse of Jane in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” needed to be cobbled along with B-roll from the primary two movies. It did not look like Portman would ever return to the MCU, and it appeared probably that Jane would merely be minimize from future “Thor” tasks … till Taika Waititi got here alongside.
In the end, Portman determined to return to the MCU due to Waititi’s imaginative and prescient for “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which arms the hammer over to Jane as she turns into a superhero in her personal proper as Mighty Thor. She most likely will not be coming again now, although, as a result of Jane reveals to Thor that she has terminal most cancers, and her physique cannot even attempt to battle it when she transforms into her personal type of Thor. She dies on the finish of the movie and reaches Valhalla (a location Marvel could revisit in “Thor 5”). All in all, Foster’s story and Portman’s time within the MCU appears to be fully wrapped up. Nonetheless, after her apprehension over “Star Wars,” it is fascinating to see how she joined one other franchise later, left when it offered diminishing returns, and solely got here again on her personal phrases.