WARNING: Spoilers ahead for “Thor: Love and Thunder”
Updated Sept 13 with a discussion of the Ancestral Realm from Black Panther.
Sometimes, Marvel uses their mid- and post-credits stingers simply to poke fun at the audience. But most times, they use them to set up a little extra piece of the future of the MCU. The latter is the case for both of the “Thor: Love and Thunder” credits scenes — but the second one may have just opened up a new realm entirely.
The bad news is, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) didn’t survive the film. As it turns out, in the time since we’ve seen her in “Thor: The Dark World,” she got cancer, and it progressed very quickly. Though Mjolnir initially seems to help her keep the disease at bay — and turns her into the badass Mighty Thor — eventually, we learn that the magic hammer was actually draining the energy she had left in her body and robbing her of the ability to fight off the cancer.
Knowing this, she uses Mjolnir one last time to help save Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in the Shadow Realm, and truly defeat Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), sacrificing herself in the process. She dies in Thor’s arms in Eternity, and disappears in gold shimmers, similar to Odin’s death in “Thor: Ragnarok.”
The good news is, unlike Odin, we see that Jane’s body is reconstituted after death. In the post-credits scene, she arrives in Valhalla where she’s greeted by none other than Heimdall (Idris Elba), who was killed by Thanos back in “Avengers: Infinity War.” The two share a sweet moment, and then the movie ends.
And with that, we can’t help but think that two beloved MCU characters have been given an open-ended ticket back into the MCU, should they ever want to use it.
We weren’t shown Tony Stark walking through the non-viking pearly gates, or Pietro or Gamora, or any other MCU deaths. Not even Loki, who could also theoretically end up in Valhalla since he died bravely in what even the biggest stickler would accept was a battle of some kind. (Obviously Loki the time travel duplicate is still very much with us).
NOTE: We initially referred to this as the first explicit time an afterlife has been depicted in the MCU, but it has been pointed out to us that we foolishly forgot about the Ancestral Realm from “Black Panther.” By way of explanation, we initially considered it ambiguous — possibly a hallucination brought on by the Heart Shaped Herb, but “Moon Knight” did confirm it isn’t simply a hallucination but actually exists as a distinct place.
Still, by showing us that Jane and Heimdall still exist independently somewhere, and not simply in context to a still-living person in need of guidance (as is the case with every instance of the Ancestral Realm we’ve seen so far), there’s a clear implication that both could return for future MCU installments.
That could simply mean scenes taking place in Valhalla itself, with the two of them watching over Thor, and attempting to help him from above. A bit like a Buddy Guardian Angel thing, where Heimdall and Jane share embarrassing stories about Thor and their time with him, perhaps with a bit of ribbing on his battle antics. In my mind, they could become the MCU version of the Statler and Waldorf muppets.
But given this stage of Marvel, it’s possible that Valhalla is the latest expansion of the multiverse, and is actually an entirely separate — entirely accessible — realm.
There is comic precedent for people returning from Valhalla — Thor himself being one of them. In the now-discontinued Ultimates universe (which for those keeping score, takes place on Earth-1610), Thor died and was sent to Valhalla. In that version, the afterlife was actually ruled by Hela. There, the two made a deal: if Thor fathered a child with her, Hela would release him back to Earth. And though it was icky for obvious reasons, Thor did it.
The snag here is that, in order for Thor to return to Earth, someone else had to die to take his place. The unlucky soul ended up being his love interest in that run, Barbara Noriss. When she died, Thor returned to Earth, and Barbara became Valhalla’s Valkyrie.
Now, obviously, neither Jane nor Heimdall are the type to ask for another’s life to save themselves, and Hela is pretty definitely gone. So a storyline like “Ultimate New Ultimates #1,” while not impossible, is unlikely. Still, there’s at least one option for returning them to the land of the living.
That said, there’s also a means for Thor simply communicating with Jane and Heimdall in the comics as well. Later in the “Ultimates” run, because he was the only survivor of Asgard, Thor himself became Valhalla. With that came the power to communicate with Valhalla residents.
But as the MCU has shown time and again, there’s no rule that it has to adhere to the comics. If Kevin Feige wanted to, he could come up with an entirely new way for Thor to access Valhalla and see/possibly rescue his people. The point is, “Thor: Love and Thunder” showed fans that Valhalla is a place that exists somewhere — we just don’t know where. The possibilities that come with that are pretty extensive.
Of course, at the end of the day, the post-credits scene could’ve simply been a nice bookend for Natalie Portman’s time in the MCU, making it clear that she died a hero (the requirement for making it to Valhalla). Being greeted by Heimdall could’ve just been a way of getting Idris Elba in there one more time, and creating a sweet moment between two of the most important people that were in Thor’s life. And that would be fine.
But we can’t help but note that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has now confirmed the existence of at least one actual afterlife. If there’s one, surely there have to be others, right? It would be quite a nihilistic twist for it to turn out the only people who get to go to heaven are literal-god superheroes — particularly considering how a revelation like that is the reason for everything that happens in “Thor: Love and Thunder” in the first place.
Which makes us think of a couple of other Marvel heroes, whose deaths didn’t result in quite the same level of closure. Maybe they’re still be out there, waiting for a camera to glance in the direction of whatever cloud they’re currently living on.
Maybe that cloud happens to be floating under the wreckage of a magical mountain temple.
At the very least, the existence of possibly accessible afterlives presents an intriguing opportunity, considering the Soul Plane never really ended up being a thing.
What we’re saying is, it’s just nice to know that Jane and Heimdall are okay and got the ending they deserved. Now do Wanda next, Marvel. Thanks.