10 Lessons Thor 5 Needs To Learn From The Ups & Downs Of The Previous 4 Films

The MCU’s Thor 5 can learn from both the positive and negative aspects of previous Thor movies. Despite not being as popular as Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk when the MCU started, Thor has slowly become one of the MCU’s most important characters. Thor has grown beyond his role as an Asgardian fish out of water, and he has become the first Avenger to star in his own fourth solo movie. Although Thor only found his footing in Thor: Ragnarok, all Thor movies have had bright spots that outshine their weak parts.

Still, Thor: Ragnarok‘s success couldn’t prevent Thor. Love and Thunder from failing to replicate its predecessor’s success. By the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, Thor’s MCU future is still up in the air, and attempting to repeat what made Thor: Ragnarok so successful likely wouldn’t work. So, instead of changing course drastically once again, what the MCU’s eventual Thor 5 could do is draw inspiration from the highs and lows of each previous installment. Whether that means that Thor 5 will conclude Thor’s MCU character journey or not is a different story altogether,

10 Thor 5 Needs An Appropriate Tone And Sense of Humor

Thor and Thor: The Dark World’s Had A Serious Tone, But Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love And Thunder Relied On Comedy

Thor movies have taken drastic turns in regard to tone.Thor was a Shakespearian drama and Thor: The Dark World was a more familiar action-fueled superhero movie. Then, Taika Waititi infused Thor: Ragnarok with his over-the-top sense of humor and lighthearted style, which refreshed Thor just in time for the Infinity Saga’s conclusion. After Thor’s tragic arc across Avengers: Infinty War and Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder then brought Thor back to his comedic tone. While these changes have made Thor quite a dynamic MCU hero, they have also caused a certain sense of tonal whiplash, making Thor’s MCU beginnings seem too self-serious and Thor’s post-Endgame era seem too frivolous.

Thor 5 can finally settle on a tone that encapsulates every aspect of Thor’s character without going to either extreme end of the spectrum. The sequel could be both serious and comedic, realistic within reason while centering on fantastical concepts, and action-fueled but also focused on Thor’s personal conflicts. Similar to how movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Doctor Strange, and Avengers: Infinity War have struck a balance between fantasy and realism, Thor 5 can become the definitive Thor movie with the right tone, style, and genre.

9 Thor 5 Needs To Put More Focus On Its Main Villain

Loki, Malekith, Hela, And Gorr Were Wasted Potential In Previous Thor Movies

Thor may not have a gallery of villains as famous as Spider-Man’s, but he has certainly faced a wide variety of terrifying antagonists in the source material. All of Thor’s MCU villains have had the potential to be the most dangerous threats to the MCU due to their immense power and evil motivations, but the MCU hasn’t done them justice. Thor’s first four movies wasted the talents of actors the likes of Christopher Eccleston and Christian Bale, and didn’t put too much focus on Tom Hiddleston’s Loki in 2011’s Thor and on Cate Blanchett’s Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. To fix this, Thor 5 needs to give its villain more screentime and its actor more freedom to experiment with their antagonist role.

8 Thor’s Supporting Characters Need To Be More Than Comic Relief And Cannon Fodder

The Warriors Three, Sif, Heimdall, Odin, and All The Gods In The Universe Were Wasted By Thor Movies

Like his villains, Thor’s supporting characters aren’t exactly famous in Marvel Comics. However, they deserve much more than what the MCU gave them across four movies. Secondary characters such as Sif, the Warriors Three, Heimdall, and Valkyrie have been relegated to background characters in the MCU while Thor and Loki make all the effort and get all the credit. Likewise, Thor: Love and Thunder introduced all the gods, only to feature them in a single sequence. The best solution to this problem in Thor 5 is giving Thor’s supporting cast more important things to do within the story and letting them take the spotlight alongside Thor similar to how the Captain America movies have done with Steve Rogers’ allies.

7 Thor’s Costume Needs To Strike A Balance Between Fantastical And Realistic

Every Thor Costume Has Captured The Asgardians’ Essence In A Different Way

One clearly positive aspect of the MCU’s Thor movies has been its costume design, which captures the Asgardians’ majestic attire perfectly, with very few exceptions and despite the different input of each directors’ artistic vision. While some costumes in Thor: Love and Thunder may have crossed the line with Thor’s yellow-and-blue suit and nanotech-inspired helmet, Thor 5 needs to retain the MCU’s larger-than-life approach to the cosmic and fantastical costume design given to the Asgardians. For instance, Olympians like Hercules and Zeus could receive more imposing costumes than the ones they wore in Thor: Love and Thunder.

6 Thor 5 Needs Better VFX And CGI Than Previous MCU Movies

Thor Movies Have Featured Some Of The Best And Worst VFX Shots In The MCU

It can’t be said that all Thor movies have had VFX and CGI problems, as Thor and Thor: Love and Thunder featured many visually breathtaking sequences as early as Phase 1. However, the bigger scope of Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder have left little time and effort for certain VFX shots such as Hela’s arrival in Thor: Ragnarok and Axl’s floating head — the latter of which embodied Thor: Love and Thunder‘s infamously bad VFX. All Thor 5 needs to do to avoid this issue is establish an appropriate scope for the story and focus on delivering the best visuals for it. After all, Thor 5 doesn’t necessarily need to have bigger stakes than Thor: Love and Thunder to surpass it.

5 Thor 5’s Setting Needs To Play A Bigger Role In The Plot

The MCU Didn’t Explore Asgard, The Nine Realms, and Omnipotence City To The Fullest

While Thor doesn’t have the most famous villains and supporting characters, he does have some of the most exciting settings. Asgard, the other worlds of the Nine Realms, and Omnipotence City provide the chance for unique MCU stories. Unfortunately, the MCU hasn’t given much thought to these settings, using them as mere backgrounds for the usual action fanfare that Thor movies share with other Marvel projects. Thor 5 needs a stronger focus on its setting, and it doesn’t even have to spend too much time developing it. The TVA’s unique look in Loki serves as the perfect example of a well-developed MCU setting, and it only took one episode to establish it.

4 Thor 5 Needs To Choose Between Focusing On A Romantic Subplot Or Dropping It Altogether

Thor And Jane Foster’s Relationship Has Always Been Inconsistent In The MCU

Jane Foster has been a core part of Thor’s character arc in the MCU, but the God of Thunder has spent very little time on screen with her to make their romance believable. Thor: Love and Thunder tried to correct this issue with Jane Foster’s transformation into the Mighty Thor and its implications, but ultimately, her death didn’t have as much impact on Thor as it could have had with a stronger basis from previous installments. Thor 5‘s romantic subplot needs to be clear from the start. Either it plays an important role in the story or it doesn’t, otherwise a weak romance could detract from an otherwise promising Thor adventure.

3 Thor 5 Needs To Learn From Infinity War And Endgame’s Emotional Moments

Thor’s Most Emotional Moments In The MCU Happened Outside His Own Solo Movies

One of the most worrying realizations about Thor’s quadrilogy is the fact that the hero’s most emotional moments happened in other movies. Thor’s failure to stop Thanos marked his character arc like no other event before it, and Thor’s reunion with his mother Frigga reminded him that he’s worthy and put him back on track after years of depression. Thor 5 needs to match these crucial moments with a similar tragic or triumphant event that makes a long-lasting impact on Thor’s journey, either to confirm that Thor will continue fighting for eons to come, die a heroic death, or retire peacefully for the rest of his life.

2 Thor Needs To Have A Clearer Character Arc And More Consistent Characterization

Thor Constantly Walks Back On His Character Arc

On the same line as Thor’s most emotional moments and the Thor movies’ clashing tones, the MCU has often made Thor’s character arc and characterization a little contradictory. For instance, Thor accepted his full potential as God of Thunder at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, but still felt he needed Stormbreaker to kill Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Then, Thor learned to stop hiding his pain behind humor in Avengers: Endgame, but later became an even more comedic character in Thor: Love and Thunder. Beginning a new era for the character, Thor 5 needs to clarify Thor’s personality and define what exactly lies ahead for him after everything he has gone through so far.

1 Thor 5 Needs To Stop Relying On MCU MacGuffins

The Casket Of Ancient Winters, The Aether, Surtur’s Crown Of Black Fire, And Stormbreaker

MacGuffins have been a staple of the fantasy genre inside and outside Marvel lore since forever. Objects like the Casket of Ancient Winters, the Aether, Surtur’s Crown, and Stormbreaker, as well as the Infinity Stones and the Darkhold, have pushed the plot of MCU movies forward so the main characters can have a clear objective to accomplish. However, after four Thor movies centered on a MacGuffin, Thor 5 could take a different direction and base its conflict on something else, be it a clash of motivations between Thor and Hercules or a different Thor 5 antagonist, a war between Asgardians and Midgardians, or any other story that diverges from the usual fetching quest Thor usually gets involved in.