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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Guys, I found a totally official still from the What If? series
◊.
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Natalie Portman: No. I'm done with Thor and the MCU forever. Forever. I'm sticking to roles with a modicum of actual dignity from now on.
Taika Waititi: Ah, c'mon. I promise this new movie I'm planning will be way better than The Dark World.
Natalie Portman: <lifts eyebrow>
Taika Waititi: Okay, I guess "better than The Dark World" isn't actually much of a feat. But hear me out. You won't be playing Thor's Love Interest. You'll be playing Thor.
Natalie Portman: ...Where do I sign?
Edited by M84 on Jul 21st 2019 at 11:29:09 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised![]()
Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if that really was part of it. Thor isn't the first time she's gone into sci-fi/fantasy/action after being handed a character that, on paper, looks like a trailblazing, headstrong person with a lot of impact - only to actually be a sexy lamp with diminishing personality (that everyone, including herself, hates, no less) that's unable to break out of "love interest" writing.
The ability to toss all that noise out and be the hero, actually do that trailblazing and have that impact, can make all the difference.
And a cut of the toy sales would be nice.
On another note, I wonder if Jane coming back means we'll be seeing Darcy again too.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 21st 2019 at 8:24:22 AM
And I would love to see her as Jane again — but this time with Taika writing and whatever improve they think up. Because Natalie Portman is a great actress — just take a look at Annihilation (which, coincidentally, also starred Tessa Thompson — hey, perhaps Portman signed up so she could work with Thompson again?).
To each their own, but personally, I'm perfectly happy with them never showing up ever again.
Darcy was, indeed, kind of the opposite of The Scrappy. Last I remember, she was the Ensemble Dark Horse.
And I'm another who personally liked Selvig. I think I liked him more than Darcy overall, though that's more because I felt Darcy ran out of steam humor-wise after a while. Though nowadays, I feel like giving Jane a combination of his role and her own in Dark World would have done wonders.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 21st 2019 at 10:03:51 AM
I recall that in this video it was revealed that originally Jane in Thor 1 was planned to be a nurse just like her comics counterpart while Selvig would handle the science role. The astrophysicists consulting for the film recommended turning Jane into a scientist too, but it appears Selvig's role or script presence wasn't changed, hence why he overlaps a lot with Jane in terms of plot relevance.
Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jul 21st 2019 at 10:09:12 AM
Ah, that explains that. I always wondered why she wasn't a nurse and I guess it's because they were persuaded to make her a scientist so there could be more female scientists in movies.
I mean, it also gives her more motivation to actually go with Thor. In the comics, Jane was the nurse to Doctor Blake, who was Thor's alter-ego. Once Blake was, basically, gotten rid of (he never really existed? kind of?), Jane really became an artifact from that era. In fact, I don't remember Jane showing up at all during Simonson's run, which is pretty much the defining run of Thor.
Of course, later on, Jane shows up again and becomes relevant, but the reason she sticks around is because she knows Thor from back when she was the nurse to Blake, which would be hard to establish in a movie.
And IIRC, Jane had cancer in the comics. Could having the Reality Stone/Aether in her and being in danger of it in Dark World be a Mythology Gag for to that?
Edited by HallowHawk on Jul 22nd 2019 at 5:02:34 PM
@Cortez: The Scrappy is an YMMV trope, and therefore I can think of them as scrappies even of the wider world disagrees with me.
sigh
Just, listen: YMMV tropes are subjective, right? That means a character that someone else finds to be an Ensemble Dark Horse I can think of as The Scrappy.
Get it? I'm not saying that Darcy and Selvig qualify for a The Scrappy entry, I'm saying that I, Hail Muffins, singular individual, think of them as scrappies because I'd rather die a good death than have to suffer trough any amount of screentime those clowns have.
Okay? Okay! Let's move on, then.
Edited by HailMuffins on Jul 22nd 2019 at 10:22:33 AM
Even though it is a YMMV trope, it still has some basic criteria, as listed on the page itself. Your own personal dislike of a character is not enough to label that character a Scrappy.
Just leave it at "character I don't like".
It's a YMMV trope because it pertains to the audience's reaction, as opposed to being a writing trope.
Edited by M84 on Jul 22nd 2019 at 9:27:56 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised

But time goes on and clearly Taika Waititi was able to convince her to come back. She clearly liked whatever he pitched her, and with a successful Thor movie under his belt he's got the credibility to ensure she won't have the rug pulled out from under her after-the-fact, as what happened in The Dark World.