The MCU Must Fix Its Valkyrie Problem After Thor: Love & Thunder
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder's underuse of Tessa Thompson's Valkyriehighlights the MCU's incessant neglect of her significance to its world and to the audiences who see themselves in the character. In Love and Thunder, Valkyrie graced the screen for the first time since 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Having been granted the mantle of King of New Asgard by the God of Thunder himself, Valkyrie converged with Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Natalie Portman's Jane Foster in the Taika Waititi-directed Love and Thunder on a mission to rescue New Asgard's children who were kidnapped by Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher. While Thor and Jane rekindled their lost love, Valkyrie and the Kronan Korg — voiced by Waititi — tagged along and sustained injuries that kept them out of the film's final battle. Unfortunately, Thor: Love and Thunder failed to capitalize on Valkyrie's rich backstory and leaves her bereft of meaningful development in the future.
An Asgardian warrior turned King, Valkyrie made her MCU debut in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, in which she encountered the God of Thunder on the planet Sakaar. Alone and drunk, she served as a scrapper after losing all of her sisters — including her lover — while fighting the goddess of death Hela (Cate Blanchett). Valkyrie later joined Thor and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to vanquish Hela (Cate Blanchett), who had newly conquered Asgard. Thanks to the doomsday event known as Ragnarok, Hela met her demise, though Asgard went down with her. Valkyrie survived Thanos' snap and participated in the conclusive battle against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. Although the real name of Thompson's character has not been uttered on-screen, her comic-book counterpart has
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