Things changed significantly for the Thunder God with the Thor Love And Thunder UK release date back in 2022. It didn’t change much in terms of the age rating certificate from Thor Ragnarok (full details below), but the story got the kind of shake up that would make all of the parallel universe Mjolnirs shudder.
You can attribute a lot of the changes to the devastating impact of the war with Thanos in Avengers Infinity War and Endgame. Thor took everything pretty badly and did a runner at the end of the film leaving Valkyrie in charge of his people living in New Asgard in Norway.
AdvertisementNew Zealand director Taika Waititi was back in the hot seat once again for Thor Love And Thunder, having done a great job previously with Ragnarok. He’s got a strong reputation for adventure comedies, which has translated well from the likes of Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and Jojo Rabbit, which came out in early 2020 in the UK.
Cast list
The cast list includes Natalie Portman (Avengers Endgame), who reprises her role as Jane Foster. The character didn’t appear in Thor Ragnarok, which took place off planet after the former love birds had broken up due to Thor’s plan to head out in search of the Infinity Stones.
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She also takes on the role of Mighty Thor in Love And Thunder having previously been confirmed to be worthy of Mjolnir. However, the Thunder God’s hammer was destroyed by Hela during Ragnarok and the alternate timeline Mjolnir was returned by Captain America at the end of Avengers Endgame.
Thor also took Stormbreaker, his replacement for Mjolnir, with him when he left with the Guardians of the Galaxy after he used it to decapitate Thanos. That left Jane Foster as a new Thor seemingly without a weapon, but the trailer confirmed early on that she would have a re-forged Mjolnir, which responds to her Mighty form over its former master.
Chris Hemsworth (Men In Black: International) still reprises his role as Thor, despite Jane’s ascension to godhood. Tessa Thomson stars as Valkyrie, and the Guardians of the Galaxy team is in the mix too, so you’ve got Chris Pratt (Jurassic World Dominion) as Peter Quill, Dave Bautista (Spectre) as Drax, Pom Klementieff (Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1) as Mantis, Karen Gillan (Jumanji The Next Level) as Nebula, Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley) as Rocket and Vin Diesel (Avatar The Way of Water) as Groot. They only appear early on in brief cameo roles, though, so don’t really feature in the story for Thor Love and Thunder.
Jamie Alexander (Thor The Dark World) returns as Sif, Geoff Goldblum (Jurassic World Dominion) is The Grandmaster, Russell Crowe (The Nice Guys) plays the god Zeus and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises) stars as villainous baddy, Gorr the God Butcher.
Thor Love And Thunder UK release date
AdvertisementThe Thor Love and Thunder UK release date had been confirmed for the 6th May 2022, but it was eventually put back to the 7th July 2022. It follows a number of delays due to the COVID pandemic. It was initially due out on the 5th November 2021, but everything was moved out and we had to wait well over a year for the next installment for the series.
RELATED: What will be the next Thor movie after Love and Thunder?
Phase Four began with the arrival of Black Widow, Shang-Chi And The Lengend Of the Ten Rings and Eternals in 2021. Natalie Portman’s thunderous superhero debut came smack bang in the middle of it all following on from Spider-Man: No Way Home in December 2021 and Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness in March ’22.
As the film came out in May 2022, it went on to get a DVD, Blu-ray and digital release date in the UK in October 2022. It has since been made available on Disney+ in both North America and the UK, so it can be streamed for members.
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Age rating certificate and parents guide
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) announced the age rating for Thor Love And Thunder in the UK close to the release date, giving it a 12A certificate. All of the previous three films had a 12 or 12A certification, and its a similar case again for number 4.
AdvertisementThe general gist of the parents guide for the previous Thor films is moderate fantasy violence and that’s a similar case here too. Director Taika Waititi continues on from Ragnarok, so there’s an obvious continuation from that, which means that it’ll be the same fantasy violence to be aware of. This doesn’t go too far and while Gorr the God Butcher can appear to be fairly malevolent at times, he’s not much darker than Hela from the previous film.
The core Thor films have all been fairly similar from an age rating point of view. The character went on to lop Thanos’ head off during Endgame, so he isn’t without intent and that’s the case with Gorr in a number of scenes. The Love and Thunder villain is played fairly darkly by Christian Bale, but it’s also a little over the top, so just stops short of being frightening for viewers aged 12 and up.
The 12 certificate is the equivalent to an age rating of PG-13 in North America and the parents guide notes above are the same for both sides of the Atlantic.
RELATED: Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania age rating
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Runtime
Like the age rating, the runtime for Thor Love and Thunder was confirmed as we go closer to the release date and its is 1 hour and 59 minutes long. Ragnarok was 2 hours 10 minutes, so it’s a little shorter, but still in the ballpark.
