Chris Hemsworth’s Thor next adventure has finally arrived in theaters and delivers a tale many fans will remember. Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcherer is a menacing threat that Thor can’t beat on his own. Thankfully, Thor isn’t alone as Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster/Mighty Thor is there to help him defeat the God killer.
Thor’s adventure takes them all across the galaxy to different realms such as Omnipotent City which hosts the strongest gods like Zeus, Celestials, Ra, and more. While fans only get a brief look at the gods present, Thor: Love and Thunder’s (2022) post-credit scene hints that MCU fans will be seeing more of Russel Crowe’s Zeus soon.
Who is the new character in the mid-credits scene?
Zeus is seen in the mid-credits scene telling a new person that the gods are not respected anymore as people rely on super heroes to save them. Zeus decides it’s time for people to fear the gods once again and sends his son, Hercules to kill the God of Thunder.
Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent in Ted Lasso) is revealed to be Hercules, the God of Strength, and grabs his weapon after Zeus’s monologue implying that he might be the villain in Thor 5. While Zeus’s son is known to be a rival to Thor, the God of Strength has also been known to be friends with Wolverine and help the Avengers meaning that Hercules might have a long-lasting role in the MCU in the next few years.
Hercules is Zeus’s son and is known as the God of Strength. Ever since birth, Hercules has had remarkable strength even though he started as a mortal baby. When Hera tried to kill Hercules with two snakes, he killed them with his bare fists as a one-year-old infant.
He went on many adventures as a demigod for Greece until dying from the poison from Deianeira. Hercules was supposed to be trapped in Tartarus, but Zeus took pity on his son and made him into a God.
After this, Hercules went on to do many things, but his first interaction with Thor was after he sent time-traveling soldiers to kill the Vikings and Thor intervened. This led to the two becoming rivals as they respected each other’s strengths.
Hercules has done a lot of things in history such as covertly fighting in WWII which led him to meet Wolverine and the two became drinking buddies. The God of Strength also helped form the West Coast Avengers and became a prominent member in the comics for some fights.
Now that Hercules is part of the MCU, Marvel has a lot of options for what to use the character for. He can serve as an easy villain for Thor to face, but it’s also possible that Marvel will ditch the character just like how Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo had a small role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) after being teased as the next villain.
Hercules could help reform the Avengers before Kang the Conqueror shows up or the character could also introduce Wolverine into the MCU. It’s hard to tell what Marvel will do with the God of Strength since he has done many things in the comics and it’s hard to tell what path Hercules will take due to all the possibilities for the character.
Marvel also showed Jane Foster making it to Valhalla with Idris Elba’s Heimdall greeting the fallen hero to the hall of the gods. Then fans get a brief glimpse of Valhalla from a distance and then the scene ends with a promise that Chris Hemsworth’s Thor will return.
Valhalla is the Asgardian resting place for all those who believe in the Asgardian myths. It’s very similar to Norse Mythology as the afterlife for the warriors who perished. Normally, only Asgardians can enter Valhalla, but Jane Foster, the Punisher, and Flash Thompson have all made it into Valhalla despite not being Asgardians.
It’s hard to know why Thor 4 included the scene since fans already knew that Jane was dead and even though it’s cool to see Heimdall one last time, it doesn’t seem like Marvel will use Valhalla in the future for any movie so it feels like a useless post-credit scene.
The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.
Credit: Marvel Studios
