Jason Aaron was a consultant during the film's production. He gave his approval for how Love and Thunder adapted Gorr the God-Butcher and Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor for the MCU.
While Natalie Portman had been in action movies before, Love and Thunder was the first project where she physically did several of her own stunts and fighting in it, and she was more than happy to bulk up to be able to do that.
Banned in China: The release date in Malaysia was delayed for two weeks and later listed as undated before officially being banned. While Malaysia was one of nearly twenty, mostly Muslim-majority countries which objected to the homosexual tinges of Lightyear, the reasons for the halting of Love and Thunder are less clear. Those who watched the movie in its neighboring countries may suspect Gorr the God Butcher may have to do with it since the nudity and LGBTQ elements are relatively minor. However others theorize that the ban stems from Disney's refusal to censor what little nudity there is in the movie instead, as the minister running the Information Ministry comes from a far-right party that's allied with the ruling party and is known to be extremely blue-nosed. In the end the movie was quietly released onto Disney+ in the country with a 18 rating in late September (again, because the party had promised that it will not censor streaming services). It was also banned in Kuwait and Bahrain for the same reasons.
While Christian Bale enjoyed working on the film for the most part, he was not particularly fond of the green screen process Marvel is known for using, finding it to be confusing and monotonous.
Taika Waititi and Tessa Thompson have both criticized the quality of film's special effects. note Many found these comments to be in poor taste, as shortly before the film's release, it was revealed that VFX artists suffer from intense crunch production periods to meet Disney deadlines.
A year after its release, Chris Hemsworth admitted that this movie became "too silly" and that he had too much fun making it at the expense of quality. He also mentioned that he found himself agreeing with the criticisms of his then-eight-year-old son and friends that there were too many swerves into humor and not enough action.
Content Leak: The designs of the Marvel Legends action figures were leaked some time before their official reveal, showing what Thor's new armor, Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor, and Gorr would look like.
Defictionalization: A few days before the movie's release, a version of Thor's scribbled "Strongest Avenger" hat was available on the official Disney Movie Insiders points program. It quickly went out of stock. A fan-submitted photo of the hat was featured on the DMI Twitter here.
Natalie Portman worked out extensively to build up her muscles to properly wield Mjölnir.
While he has always been a Hunk, Chris Hemsworth is noticeably even more muscular than in prior movies as he'd been bulking up to play Hulk Hogan in a biopic. To maintain his physique during production, he engaged in intense exercise and ate ten meals a day (around 4,500 calories). He also switched up his high-protein diet on his own accord to cut out animal products on days he had to kiss Natalie Portman out of consideration for her vegan diet.
Christian Bale went through a three-and-a-half hour makeup process in order to transform into Gorr, and also put on long, acrylic nails in order to add to the physical appearance, which made things such as eating and typing on the computer very difficult.
Brett Goldstein, a self-described “skinny comedian” had to put on a lot of weight to play the muscular Greek God, Hercules in The Stinger.
Milestone Celebration: Thanks to being pushed back from a late 2021 release to mid-2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Love and Thunder is part of the 60th anniversary celebration of Thor's comics debut.
In the French dub, Gabriel Le Doze replaced the late Jacques Frantz (who passed in 2021) as Dr. Erik Selvig.
In the Latin-American Spanish dub, Sergio Zurita stopped playing Rocket, being replaced by Enrique Cervantes. The reason for the change was due to internal differences between Zurita and Disney shortly before the premiere of Avengers: Endgame.
In the Latin-American Spanish dub, Salvador Delgado did not return to voice Dr. Erik Selvig, so he was instead replaced by Armando Coria.
Queer Character, Queer Actor: Valkyrie is confirmed as bisexual and is portrayed by Tessa Thompson, who is attracted to both men and women, while eschewing the bisexual label.
Reality Subtext: The Guardians' brief appearance in this movie is likely a nod to how Taika Waititi was considered as a replacement director for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 before James Gunn was rehired to take the reins. Waititi had previously refused the offer due to not wanting to interfere with Gunn's vision, but it seems he certainly didn't mind getting to play with them here! Though Gunn's own comments suggest Waititi put them more or less where Gunn wanted them for Vol. 3, which lines up with Waititi's statements that the Guardians weren't his to control.
In Thor: Ragnarok a deleted scene had Thor showing that he had an "LOKI RIP" tattoo on his arm. The trailer shows that he ended up getting a bigger one on his back and included Loki's helmet.
Concept art for Thor: Ragnarok reveals that Hela's Necrosword and Berserkers were originally going to be much more similar to their comics counterparts. This film uses designs for the Black Berserkers closely resembling some of the designs shown in Ragnarok's concept art.
Release Date Change: The film was bumped from its original November 2021 date to the first unclaimed release date of February 18, 2022 due to the big COVID-19 Pandemic-induced shuffle of MCU release dates (it's unknown what was originally planned for that date). It then shifted to May 6, 2022, then was nudged to July 8 by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Scully Box: Mjolnir's power improvement made Jane bigger as well, and to convey that the set had a maze-like structure of decking to make Natalie Portman seem taller while not preventing the rest of the cast from walking to where they needed.
So My Kids Can Watch: Christian Bale admitted in interviews that his kids basically strong-armed him into accepting the role of Gorr, even after he expressed worry that scheduling conflicts might prevent him from joining the project.
Spoiled by the Cast List: Idris Elba is credited for his appearance as Heimdall in the credits, ahead of his appearance in The Stinger. While he did appear earlier in the movie via recycled footage from the earlier films, none of the other actors for characters who appeared only in such footage were credited, which gives away that there would be more to see of Heimdall.
Gorr's appearance was revealed by the Marvel Legends toyline, the LEGO Sets and Funko Pop before he appeared in any trailers.
The Black Berserkers are briefly glimpsed at the end of the first trailer, but a tie-in LEGO set called "Attack on New Asgard" implies they look very different from their comic book counterparts.
Jane Foster having cancer was revealed by the "Mighty Thor's Helmet Replica" merchandise, before the description was edited a few days later to remove mention of her being terminally ill (though admittedly many had already presumed this to be the case, given that this was also a key feature of the source material).
Trolling Creator: A rare example where the creator is trolling another creator. According to Chris Pratt, part of the reason Taika Waititi included the Asgardian goats Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder in this movie was to supposedly force James Gunn to incorporate them into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 somehow, since the latter film picks up where this one leaves them off at. Gunn however didn't take the bait. Not that he really could've anyway, since the team left the goats with Thor before leaving and the plot doesn't follow directly from there anyway. In fact, the only acknowledgement of Thor's time with them in the movie is a photo of him in the end credits.
Uncredited Role: Akosia Sabet plays a minor role as Bast, an Egyptian goddess and the patron deity of the Wakandan hero, the Black Panther. However, her name is absent from the credits list.
Wag the Director: Pre-production example - Christian Bale would only sign on provided Gorr was done practically rather than being a Motion Capture role.
Taika Waititi and Christian Bale apparently considered giving Gorr a dance scene in the movie, but they gave up on the idea rather quickly, as they felt it was too bizarre even by their standards.
Kevin Feige stated early on that King Valkyrie would be looking for her queen over the course of the movie, with Taika Waititi and Tessa Thompson assuring fans that her bisexuality would be spotlighted, with reports surfacing in July 2022 that Valkyrie was originally going to have been in a relationship with Sif. However, Waititi and Thompson chose to scrap the "King Valkyrie finds a queen" plot-point in favor of her learning to love herself.
While details are scarce, beyond those listed under Deleted Role above, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale have stated that entire planets and sequences with a variety of characters were filmed, but cut from the film for time. One such scene that appeared in a promotional photograph featured Mantis talking to Thor.
According to Waititi, Zeus' accent nearly ended up being British rather than Greek in the final film. He and Crowe discussed it during filming and Crowe pushed for the Greek accent. But Waititi was uncertain it would work and that audiences instead would expect a Zeus a la British actor Laurence Olivier. So, each of Crowe's scenes were shot twice with both accents. Waititi concedes Crowe was right and that the Greek accent worked better (and that using the British accent would've likewise been offensive to the film's Greek audience).
Concept art of Gorr reveals he was originally going to look closer to his comic book counterpart, and wear hooded armor. Waititi ultimately redesigned him to avoid comparisons with Lord Voldemort.
This tweet reveals that Cyttorak, the god empowering the Juggernaut in the comics, would have made an appearance on Omnipotence City. The same concept art shows Ajak of the Eternals' god form, Brio of Life, Aegis of All Sorrows, and a god resembling Jack Kirby's illustration of Sam from Lord of Light of all things.
A deleted scene shows that Zeus was originally not antagonistic, did not have a fake-out death on Omnipotent City, traveled to New Asgard and gave Thor the Thunderbolt willingly.
During the scene with Eternity, Jesus was going to appear in a cutaway gag. Unsurprisingly, the idea was vetoed according to Waiti and Thompson.
At some point, Eternity was planned to have a speaking role when Thor, Jane and Gorr encounter them, which would've had a Morgan Freeman-inspired voice. However, Taika Waititi eventually chose to leave Eternity mute, as he felt that more expository dialogue would ruin the otherwise quite emotional scene.
Before it was officially announced that he was playing Gorr, it was rumored that Bale would be playing Beta Ray Bill.
According to Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth [1], the film originally lasted 4 hours, and they described it as the craziest and wildest cut they had ever seen, according to what they said, at times the story was abandoned in favor of telling jokes, with several scenes that had nothing to do with the plot. Considering previous statements of scenes cut from entire planets and roles removed, there's likely a lot of unreleased material in that cut.
Word of Saint Paul: When asked on Twitter whether Rocket kept in contact with Thor after the events of this film, James Gunn's response was a blunt "No".
prior to starring in this movie, believing that he was merely signing up for a one-off superhero film.