Thor: Love and Thunder was released in theaters this past week, and it includes many top-notch actors in a big franchise film. With so many big names in the movie, the question becomes: which actor portrays their character the best? Did Portman’s return steal the show? Or did Hemsworth dominate once again?
With these questions in mind, let’s start the ranking of the best performances from the main characters of Thor: Love and Thunder.
Warning: Spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder are below, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, proceed with caution.
11. The Guardians of the Galaxy
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
Having left Earth with the Guardians at the end of Avengers: Endgame, it makes perfect sense that Thor begins Thor: Love and Thunder as a member of the group, with it being revealed that Korg had also tagged along for the ride.
Though their actual appearance may be brief, the Guardians of the Galaxy do help move the plot forward as they are the ones to receive the distress calls from around the galaxy about Gorr. They quickly leave the film though, as they leave Thor and Korg to answer the call of Sif, while the Guardians take off to answer other calls, never to be seen for the rest of the movie.
The Guardians of the Galaxy are included as one entry altogether because they are pretty interchangeable in the film, having only a few lines and really serving as more of a glorified cameo. So while they aren’t bad at all within the film, the characters don’t stand out whatsoever, making the performances pretty forgettable, thus deserving of last place on the list.
10. India Rose Hemsworth as Love
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
The daughter of Gorr the God Butcher, her death in the film’s opening scene is what provides the motivation for Thor: Love and Thunder’s antagonist. At the film’s climax, Gorr uses his wish from Eternity to bring his daughter back to life, but since he is now dying, Thor agrees, at the encouragement of Jane, to raise the young girl. Thor and Love end the film wielding Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, respectively, on a quest to help people all around the galaxy, becoming known as Love and Thunder.
Love may be low on this list, but that doesn’t mean that India Rose Hemsworth didn’t provide a perfectly fine performance. For example, in Thor: Love and Thunder’s final scene, she is absolutely adorable, painting Thor’s hammer and seemingly going off to school, only for it to be revealed that she and her adopted father are about to fight some aliens.
Her ranking mainly comes down to the fact that she is really only in three scenes, two of which she is asked to do very little, so she isn’t allowed to shine. This is a problem that could totally change with future installments, but as we are ranking this installment’s performances, she gets put towards the back.
9. Taika Waititi as Korg
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
Thor: Love and Thunder’s director, Taika Waititi, portrays the lovable Kronan Warrior, Korg. While he is not a bad character at all, he gets next to no story despite being in a large part of the film, as he even gets destroyed by Zeus, spending a portion of the movie as a talking head.
The only actual developments we end up getting for Korg are that we learn more of the Kronan race and that the Kronan Warrior ends the film now in a relationship with Dwayne, with the two of them likely to have a kid next time we see them.
Korg is a perfectly fine character, but difficult to truly feel like it is a performance that stands out as the character is entirely CGI and is more just meant for comic relief. It also doesn’t help that we have seen people like Mark Ruffalo and Josh Brolin give great CGI performances, making him stick out as one of the more forgettable performances of the CGI characters.
Korg actually shines more with the character’s writing, so he would likely be higher on this list if this one was about the actual characters in the film, but since it is not, Korg is placed here.
8. Kieron L. Dyer as Axl
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
The son of Thor’s deceased best friend, Heimdall, Axl, was a major shock to see as we had never been informed that Heimdall had had a wife and son, making his death in Avengers: Infinity War all the sadder. Axl proves his worth as a character as he provides a major assist when helping Thor locate the kids.
Axl also looks great in the film’s final battle when Thor imbues the children with powers, and now that King Valkyrie and Sif are training Axl, he could provide even more assistance in the MCU going forward. As for the performance of the character, Dyer is funny and instantly charming, making this a character you root for right off the bat, which is more thanks to the performance and not the writing.
There isn’t much more to say about the character and the performance though, as there is undoubtedly room to want more from the character, but this was seemingly just an introduction. We should see more of the character of Axl in the future, where Dyer can hopefully make an even more significant impact.
7. Jaime Alexander as Sif
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
Sif is the one that alerts Thor to the presence of Gorr as she had battled the God Butcher and his army alongside Falligar, which results in her losing her arm. After being found by Thor, she wishes to go to Valhalla but realizes that since she didn’t die in the actual battle, she wouldn’t go, which causes her to be okay with being taken to New Asgard. Sif is next seen in the film’s final moments training Axl and the other Asgardian children in self-defense.
It’s great to see Sif once again in the MCU, as we haven’t seen the character since Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and very briefly in Loki. Despite being in the film for very little, she certainly makes an impression, especially with her comedic timing, as the whole scene involving her arm and Valhalla is hilarious.
Now that she is training the Asgardian children, we may hopefully see her in future MCU installments, especially after seeing that Alexander hasn’t lost a beat playing the character after being gone from the MCU for years.
6. Russell Crowe as Zeus
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
In Thor: Love and Thunder’s middle act, Thor and friends go to the Omnipotence City to try to recruit Zeus and the other gods in the fight against Gorr. Zeus turns Thor down, and after seemingly killing Korg, a grief-stricken Thor seemingly kills Zeus. We don’t see Zeus again until the mid-credits scene, where it is revealed that he is healing and sends Hercules to kill the Norse God of Thunder.
In the movie, it is said that Zeus is known for having fantastic entrances, and boy oh boy, does he ever. While it is certainly a ridiculous entrance, it is full of laughs, which is in large part thanks to Crowe’s performance as the Olympian.
Thankfully, Crowe embraces the role of Zeus and totally goes for it, causing the character to stand out; I mean, the way that Zeus exited his podium was fantastic. He may not have been in the film for too long, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t leave an impression and is certainly a character that should be seen going forward in the MCU.
5. Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
Valkyrie was appointed King of Asgard at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and while she is happy about the title and feels worthy of protecting the Asgardians, King Valkyrie does not care for bureaucracy, as she would rather be in the heat of battle. So, when Thor comes along and needs her to come on the journey, she quickly accepts as she wants to experience the battle again.
Unfortunately, during the battle against Gorr in the Shadow Realm, she is considerably injured, causing her to have to sit out of the final battle, not to be seen until the film’s final moments, where she has the children of Asgard start training.
Tessa Thompson is just as fantastic in her performance here as she was in Thor: Ragnarok, portraying King Valkyrie as extremely strong and fierce. She has excellent chemistry with the film’s other two leads, Thor and Jane, with the way that Thompson and Portman get along as fast friends being a particular highlight for the character.
Thompson’s portrayal of King Valkyrie is undoubtedly great and fun, but unfortunately, she is held down by having not as much screentime and development as one would expect, making it hard to think that she should be any higher on this list as the script and movie’s final cut lets her down in this regard.
4. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster / Mighty Thor
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
After skipping out on Thor: Ragnarok, Jane Foster returns in Thor: Love and Thunder, where the backstory on Thor and Jane’s whole relationship is finally revealed. Jane Foster is called to Mjolnir to become the Mighty Thor as it is trying to protect her now that she is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
In the film’s final battle, Jane sacrifices herself allowing her cancer to take her life, but in the process she is able to finally defeat Gorr and the Necrosword, proceeding to pass on to the afterlife of Valhalla. While Portman is okay when it comes to the comedic moments, it should come as no surprise that the moments where the character and her portrayal really shines is when it comes to the more dramatic moments.
Portman and Hemsworth have great chemistry this time around, making scenes like the flashback to their breakup great, but when it comes to how Portman portrays the Jane dying of cancer storyline, she is excellent at making the loss felt. Not to mention that Portman also has great chemistry with Thompson, but whereas the lack of screentime hinders Thompson, Portman has much more of it, so you can see that Portman is giving this role her all.
3. Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
At the beginning of the film, Thor and the Guardians are trying to protect a planet from an invading army that is trying to take control of the planet’s temple. While Thor is able to stop the invaders, he destroys the temple in the process, which causes the people of the planet to give Thor the two goats as a “gift,” saying “thanks” for saving their world, though they were at least partly given out of revenge.
Thor gladly takes the two goats in and brings them along for the journey, attaching them to the Asgardian Tours boat that the heroes use so that they can lead the ship on the heroes’ quest through the cosmos.
While I have seen discourse where some people have said that the goats were not funny like they were supposed to be, I actually very much disagree with this notion and think that the goats are great, providing tons of laughs. Their inclusion in the film wasn’t overbearing, and it felt like they were used the right amount regarding their screen time.
2. Christian Bale as Gorr
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
After the death of his daughter, Gorr finds the god Rapu, whom he worshipped, but quickly finds out that the god didn’t care at all about human life and that he despised humans. Unfortunately for Rapu, the Necrosword that Rapu was in possession of called to Gorr, who in turn killed Rapu and vowed to kill all the gods, proceeding to go on his massacre.
At the end of the movie, he finally reaches the cosmic entity, Eternity, and plans on using his dying wish for all the gods to die. Jane and Thor are able to convince him that he doesn’t need revenge and that he can instead choose the love for his daughter and bring her back, which he does, spending his final few living moments seeing his daughter one last time.
Right off the bat, I want to say that Christian Bale is absolutely fantastic in the role, as he portrays Gorr as incredibly intimidating and scary, yet somehow still nuanced and a character who can give emotional beats for the story. If everything about the film was perfect, Bale would probably be number one, but the problem comes down to that he could’ve been used more.
Christian Bale was willing to truly go for it with his performance, but unfortunately, the character gets bogged down in the typical problems that Marvel runs into with their villains, causing the performance to just miss out on the top spot.
1. Chris Hemsworth as Thor
All Cast and Characters in Thor: Love and Thunder Ranked by Performance
The God of Thunder continues his path of being reimagined as a lovable yet fierce warrior providing some great comedic moments. Thor finds himself on an inner journey of discovering who he is when he is with the Guardians of the Galaxy while also finding himself involved in a quest to stop the God Butcher, where he has to deal with his unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Jane. Not to mention Jane is now the Mighty Thor and is wielding Thor’s ex-weapon, Mjolnir. By the film’s end, he finds himself having to now raise Gorr’s daughter at the request of Jane, with the God of Thunder back to wielding Mjolnir again while having his adoptive daughter wield Stormbreaker.
The title character is made even more lovable in this movie, largely thanks to Chris Hemsworth’s acting skills and performance. Scenes like those with Mjolnir and Stormbreaker are hilarious thanks to the way that Hemsworth performs them, as those scenes could only possibly be sold by the actor who is actually there. Thor continues to be one of the best MCU characters, also thanks to Hemsworth’s performance and his perfect comedic timing, as he is a kind-hearted warrior who you just want to be around for as long as possible. Chris Hemsworth is the Marvel character Thor and this performance all just further solidifies that he was the perfect actor to cast in the role.
These are all the cast and characters in Thor: Love and Thunder ranked by performance. If you have any questions about the film, Twinfinite is host to numerous guides on the film, some of which are linked below.
About the author
