Natalie Portman on Her ‘No-Brainer’ Decision to Return to the MCU in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’

Spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder below.

It’s nothing short of a surprise that Natalie Portman is back in the MCU. The actor who played Jane Foster in both Thor and Thor: The Dark World was seemingly done with Marvel after some behind-the-scenes shuffling on the production of that second installment. Portman famously didn’t return to film the post-credits sequence on The Dark World, and her appearance in Avengers: Endgame came out of unused footage from that same film. The possibility of Portman returning seemed to be a stretch, that is until she walked out on the San Diego Comic-Con stage in 2019 to thunderous applause as it was announced she’d be returning for a fourth Thor movie in an adaptation of Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman’s beloved The Mighty Thor series.

The basis of that Aaron/Dautermann comic book informs all of Jane’s arc in Love and Thunder. Stricken with cancer, Jane eventually comes into possession of Mjölnir, who grants her the ability to become a Thor of her own. The trade-off for these new godly powers comes at the expense of her chemo treatment; every time she powers up, she’s effectively spreading the cancer throughout her body. It’s a powerful storyline to adapt, one that becomes even more affecting when audiences see Thor (Chris Hemsworth) react to the truth of the matter.

Complex chatted with Portman prior to the film’s release for a conversation about the cancer storyline, returning to the MCU, defining her Thor’s fighting style, and much more.