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Taika Waititi will return to direct Thor 4 aka Thor: Love and Thunder

This means his adaptation of Akira is on hold

Taika Waititi on the thor ragnarok set Fairfax Media/Getty Images
Petrana Radulovic is an entertainment reporter specializing in animation, fandom culture, theme parks, Disney, and young adult fantasy franchises.

Thor 4 is moving ahead in development, with Taika Waititi returning to direct the latest installment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This, however, means that his other blockbuster project — the long-gestating manga adaptation Akira — will be put on hold for the foreseeable future.

Waititi’s take on the Asgardian hero with Thor: Ragnarok reinvigorated the Avenger, giving a fresh and funny take on the previous long and dreary Thor movies. Avengers: Endgame found Thor with a new outlook on life, going through a dark depression but ultimately coming out of it with a new perspective and feeling of worth. At the end of the movie, he joins the Guardians of the Galaxy as they embark on a search for Gamora.

With Asgard now settled comfortably in a small Scandinavian cove — and Valkyrie leading them as king — Thor is free to go on all the adventures he chooses. Whether or not he’ll make an appearance in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or if his next movie will be Thor 4 is still unknown.

Thor 4 does not have a set release date — in fact, it wasn’t even slated for the next bout of Phase 4 MCU movies. Waititi, meanwhile, next lands in theaters on Oct. 18 with Jojo Rabbit, a dark comedy about a young German boy in World War II whose only friend is an imaginary (and ethnically incorrect) version of Adolf Hitler.

Update: During Marvel’s Cinematic Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Taika Waititi took the stage to announce that Thor 4 will officially be called, Thor: Love and Thunder. He was joined on-stage by Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. When talking about her character Valkyrie’s role as ruler of New Asgard in the film, Thompson said, “first she needs to find her queen.”

Marvel Studios

Waititi explained that he’s pulling from a comics storyline called The Mighty Thor, written by Jason Aaron, for the film’s story. “It introduces a female Thor for the first time,” Waititi said, before bringing out Natalie Portman, who’s been absent from the Thor series since the second movie outside of her brief re-appearance in Endgame. Portman took the stage with the rest of the Love and Thunder cast with Mjolnir in hand.

Thor: Love and Thunder will be in theaters on Nov. 5, 2021.

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