Great Odin's beard! Russell Crowe is joining the cast of Marvel's Thor: Love and Thunder! Russell joins Chris Hemsworth, who is reprising his role as the God of Thunder, Natalie Portman, and Christian Bale, who will be playing the villain, Gorr the God Butcher. Evidently, Marvel was hoping to keep Crowe's participation a secret, but recent photos of the actor hanging out with the cast all over Australia let the cat out of the bag. Damn you, smartphones! Why can't you just take a day off now and again?
Crowe's role is being kept under wraps at this time, though if Marvel wants to surprise fans, they'll assign him the part of Beta Ray Bill, a Bronze Age monster turned hero in the pages of Marvel Comics. To be clear, I have no inside track on who Russell will play in the movie. I just really want to see Beta Ray Bill up on the big screen. Make it happen, Marvel!
Thor: Love and Thunder will be helmed by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi. In what we know so far about the follow-up to 2017's Ragnarok, Thor: Love and Thunder will see Hemsworth's Thor passing the hammer to Jane Foster, and welcoming her as Marvel's Mighty Thor, aka The Goddess of Thunder. In recent years by way of Marvel Comics, Foster was deemed worthy of the hammer Mjolnir, a storyline that also finds the good doctor fighting an uphill battle with breast cancer. In the past, Waititi has said that he will embrace Marvel writer Jason Aaron's meticulously-crafted storyline but was not specific as to which elements, to avoid spoilers.
In the run of comics from writer Jason Aaron, artist Russell Dauterman, and color artist Matthew Wilson, Foster comes to wield Mjolnir after the original Thor becomes unworthy of the all-power weapon, and ventures into exile under the name Odinson. In her human form, Jane is battling cancer but becomes the Goddess of Thunder while gripping the hammer, even though using the weapon worsens her condition a great deal. Talk about heroism!
Thor: Love and Thunder is expected to make it rain in theaters on May 6, 2022.