‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Post-Credits Scenes Explained

Thor: Love and Thunder is now in cinemas. It’s the Asgardian Avenger fourth solo adventuremaintains his place as 29th Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie. It sees director Taika Waititi, who also directed in 2017 Thor: Ragnarokbringing his comedic edge to yet another superhero outing (and its two post-credits scenes).

The film catches up with Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) after the events of Avengers: Endgame, in which he decided to join the space-faring Guardians of the Galaxy. He also reunites with former flame Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has been empowered by his ancient hammer Mjolnir and becomes the mighty Thor while confronting the chilling menace of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Balle).

as soon as you have wrapped your head around the end of the film and be another adorable cameoit’s time to spin your enchanted hammer and jump in SPOILER for the mid and post-credits scenes.

A vengeful god

In the mid-credits scene, it is revealed that Zeus (Russell Crowe) survived after Thor shot the Greek god’s own bolt of lightning through his chest. Cared for on his throne, Zeus expresses his anger that people now worship superheroes over gods.

“They will fear us again when they see Thor Odinson fall from the sky,” he says bitterly. “Do you understand me, Hercules? Do you understand me, my son?”

We’re introduced to the MCU’s Hercules (Brett Goldstein, the lovable grumpy Roy Kent from Ted Lasso).

“Yes, father,” he growls.

What does that mean?

Marvel’s Hercules was introduced in the comics as Thor’s rival back to the 60’s, but later became his ally and joined the Avengers. He has appeared regularly in the decades since his debut and has occasionally starred in his own series. A bit of a braggart, Herc is a trusted friend to his fellow heroes.

The character was first seen as an idiot of the time-travelling villain Immortusbut this version was later turned out to be a scammer — mostly because it didn’t really fit his later characterization, and because “cheater” is a classic comic book explanation for such discrepancies.

Immortus partially inspired the Loki villain He who stays, who was an alternate reality version of future MCU villain Kang. As the films and shows regularly revisit classic comic book stories, it’s possible that Hercules will team up with Kang to defeat Thor.

Regardless, it’s likely that Hercules and Thor will become allies at some point in the future – Goldstein is just too popular and lovable to stay evil.

He is also the second Ted Lasso actor to recently make a cameo appearance in an MCU post-credits scene. Cristo Fernández, best known for portraying Dani Rojas in “Football is Life” in the AppleTVPlus Series, appeared in one of The additional scenes from Spider-Man: No Way Home last December.

life after death

As Thor struggled to prevent Gorr from reaching all-powerful Eternity and wished for all gods to be wiped out, Jane left her cancer treatment to take in Mjolnir one last time and rode to his aid. The heroic duo managed to convince Gorr to abandon his campaign of genocide, but she soon lost her battle with the disease.

The post-credits scene reunites us with Jane after her death as she steps through a portal and finds herself in a beautiful mountain location. She is greeted by Heimdall (Idris Elba), the all-seeing guardian of Asgard’s Bifrost Bridge who was slain by Thanos Avengers: Infinity War.

“You are very welcome here in the land of the gods,” he says warmly. “Welcome to Valhalla.”

What does that mean?

Valhalla, the Asgardian heaven inspired by Norse mythology, was mentioned earlier in the film. When Thor meets a wounded Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) after her encounter with Gorr, she urges him to let her die so she can go to Valhalla. Thor reminds her that she would only go there if she died in battle, so she agrees to go to New Asgard and get patched up.

When Jane dies in Thor’s (massive) arms after the final battle with Gorr, she dissolves into stardust like Odin (Anthony Hopkins) in Thor: Ragnarok, suggesting that she was accepted as an Asgardian despite being born human .

This may mean that Jane is allowed to rest in the afterlife among the other fallen gods and we won’t see her again (especially since getting Portman, Elba, and Hopkins back would be expensive). However, MCU post-credits scenes usually serve to set future storylines, and Jane’s comic book counterpart became a Valkyrie after her time as Mighty Thor.

In the MCU, this group of elite female warriors were slaughtered in battle with the goddess of death, Hela. King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) was the sole survivor. In the comics and Norse mythology, the Valkyries lead those who fall in battle in Valhalla, so their MCU counterparts may have served a similar purpose – Jane could eventually join their ranks.

Valhalla is also likely just one dimension in the MCU, and it may be possible to travel to and from there since the multiverse has been broken open the season finale of Loki. So Jane and Thor could see each other again.

Could Loki be in Valhalla?

That original MCU Loki is dead after being killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War (the one we followed in the Disney Plus series was an alternative timeline variant). Since the OG Loki was killed in battle, he should have been rewarded with a blissful eternity in Valhalla.

It’s also possible that the original version of the character isn’t dead, as the older Classic Loki – a variant from another timeline – from the Disney Plus series revealed he was had tricked Thanos with a super-realistic projection. After that, he lived in solitude on a remote planet “for a long, long time.”

Classic Loki’s timeline diverges from the main timeline as he leaves the far-off world to see Thor. This suggests that the regular version of the character stayed isolated, so maybe he didn’t make it to Valhalla after all.