‘Thor: Love and Thunder‘ is rife with pop cultural references, from Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster listing films to help another individual understand how wormholes work, to Korg making a subtle nod at Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson while opening up about his homosexuality. 

For a superhero film, theatre plays a major role in Taika Waititi’s ‘Love and Thunder’, serving to remind audiences of events that unfolded in ‘Ragnarok’, the previous God of Thunder movie. Despite being a narrative tool and a hint at how theatre was used in earlier days to recount parables and legends of gods, the Oscar-winning director also takes the opportunity to have some fun. 

When recounting the tale of Odin’s death in front of an enraptured audience comprising of tourists and New Asgardians, Melissa McCarthy appears as on-stage Hela, Thor’s elder sister, played by Cate Blanchett in ‘Ragnarok’. Both Thor and Loki abandon their earthly disguises to don their battle outfits. 

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They turn to the audience and utter “transform” before the on-stage change of costume takes place. This is reminiscent of the catchphrase popularized by the Transformers, the Hasbro figures who have their own film franchise. They’re robots from a planet called Cybertron and hide among humans by turning into an assortment of vehicles. When transitioning from their robot form to the vehicular form, or vice versa, the Transformers usually say “transform”, and it has become a pop-cultural mainstay. 

Coming back to the theatrical production in ‘Love and Thunder’, Thor realized Odin was missing, and the realms were in chaos, early on in ‘Ragnarok’. Upon reaching Asgard, he’d found Loki pretending to be the Allfather, and enjoying a theatrical retelling of the God of Mischief’s apparent death while fighting the Dark Elves, as seen in ‘Dark World’. This is also the first time we meet the theatrical troupe who feature so prominently in ‘Love and Thunder’. 

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The God of Thunder calls out his brother’s trick and takes him to locate Odin. Part of their earthy disguise includes Thor turning his hammer, Mjolnir, into an umbrella. 

Their earthly visit includes an interesting encounter with Doctor Strange who directs them to where Odin is, which is where Loki and Thor first meet Hela, who shatters Mjolnir. In the play staged in ‘Love and Thunder’, Waititi details how special effects take place on stage, as we see a replica of the hammer moving towards McCarthy’s Hela with the help of strings. 

The applause from the crowd at New Asgard, as the actors take a bow, is a testament to the success of the play within ‘Love and Thunder’.