Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson reveal MCU characters they'd like to team up with

Natalie Portman at the Thor: Love and Thunder premiere
(Image credit: Getty)

Natalie Portman is thrilled to bring Jane Foster’s Thor to life in Thor: Love and Thunder and co-star Tessa Thompson is once again riding high as Valkyrie. While they’ve had a chance to star with some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest stars over the years, they both have ideas about their dream team-ups. 

“I love Captain Marvel,” Portman told Variety. Not only would a Thor and Captain Marvel team-up be awesome, it would give her a chance to see her pal. “Brie [Larson] is a dear friend so that would be a fun one. That would be cool.”

Portman is excited to be joining Larson and Thompson as a strong female character for kids to admire. “I think it’s incredible that all children have an array of women they can identify with and there’s not just one. I feel like I grew up where there was like Wonder Woman or maybe Catwoman. There [was] one kind of these characters, so now to have this wide variety of personalities, different appearances, different powers, it allows everyone to imagine their potential.” 

Like Portman, Tessa Thompson has ideas about who she’d like to see Valkyrie team up with in the future and it involves anyone from Wakanda. “I’d love to visit Wakanda,” she said. “I feel as a Black American you should visit your homeland. Valkyrie is Asgardian — of course, she’s not Wakandan — but I think we’d have fun together. Maybe a Wakanda and a New Asgard mashup. At least make a band or something.”

Tessa Thompson at the Thor: Love and Thunder premiere

(Image credit: Getty)

The Westworld star is eager for a chance to hang out with Team Wakanda. “I want to be invited to the Wakanda cookout. I don’t even need to do anything in the movie. I just need to be in the background or just be at the cookout. Ryan Coogler, you got my number!”

Once upon a time these kinds of dream team-ups were chalked up to wishful thinking, but we’re living in an era where anything is possible in the MCU. Thanks to the popularity of Marvel limited series on Disney Plus, it’s entirely possible for Marvel characters to team up in ways that would never be possible in a motion picture. 

It just takes a solid script, the stars’ calendars aligning and blessings from Kevin Feige and voila! A new series is born. (We’re pretty sure there’s some budgeting that had to happen, too, but the devil’s in the details…)

If Thor: Love and Thunder turns out to be the massive hit that it’s gearing up to be, it’s possible that Marvel might consider granting Portman and Thompson’s wishes and then we all win. 

Sarabeth Pollock
Editorial Content Producer

 

Sarabeth joined the What to Watch team in May 2022. An avid TV and movie fan, her perennial favorites are The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, true crime documentaries on Netflix and anything from Passionflix. You’ve Got Mail, Ocean's Eleven and Signs are movies that she can watch all day long. She's also a huge baseball fan, and hockey is a new favorite.  


When she's not working, Sarabeth hosts the My Nights Are Booked Podcast and a blog dedicated to books and interviews with authors and actors. She also published her first novel, Once Upon an Interview, in 2022.