The following article contains spoilers for Moon Knight.Thor: Love and Thunder will be the first time a hero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets a 4th film dedicated entirely to their own story. Most solo projects for the MCU cap out at 3 films, like the Iron Man trilogy, or bring in a new hero to carry out the mantle, as will be seen through Sam Wilson in Captain America 4.
Marvel fans have known about Love and Thunder for a while now, ever since 2019 when Kevin Feige announced the film’s title at San Diego Comic-Con. A lot of people have expressed their excitement over the film on social media since then, anxious to see Chris Hemsworth reprise his role as the God of Thunder, alongside other fan favorites such as Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie.
Thor has been part of the MCU for an exceptionally long time, making his debut in the original 2011 Thor movie, before teaming up with the other Avengers in 2012. Both of these films were part of Phase 1, and it’s rare that a character survives so long in the franchise. With that being said, Thor 4 is no small feat, especially since Marvel has made it very clear they’ve got no qualms about killing off the bigwigs.
Thor: Love and Thunder is only a few months away from its release, set to premiere July 8th of this year. With that being said, it’s strange that it took so long for Marvel to finally release the first trailer, given that the movie will be coming to theaters this summer.
One Marvel fan took to Reddit to share their opinion on the matter, speculating that the reason for withholding the Love and Thunder trailer is part of Marvel’s plan to avoid spoilers for their other projects. The Reddit user pointed out that Marvel typically starts promoting their films and tv shows months in advance, so the fact that Love and Thunder has been getting swept under the rug is extremely unusual.
The user suspects that the promotional material Marvel has gathered for Thor 4 is directly linked to the ongoing Moon Knight series, or the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which premiers next month. Given how crafty MCU fans can be when it comes to finding spoilers or predicting what’s in store for the characters before projects are even released, it would make sense for Marvel to withhold certain information about Love and Thunder.
Ever since leaked photos of Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire circulated the internet before the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel Studios has been more cautious about what they let fans see prior to release. It’s no secret that Marvel carefully crafts and edits their trailers to prevent spoilers, so if Thor 4 holds any major ties to Moon Knight or maybe even Doctor Strange 2, it’s likely that fans would keep digging until they got to the bottom of it.
The Reddit theory proposes the idea that the supposed spoilers in question will have something to do with Gorr the God Butcher. Gorr was always told to put his faith in the gods, and he maintained this belief until he got married and had kids. Eventually, Gorr’s wife and children all died, which inspired him to start a crusade and massacre as many gods as he could, because they’d forsaken his family.
The Reddit user points out that Moon Knight just introduced a hefty number of new gods. They suspect that Gorr will show up at some point in the series and eradicate the Egyptian gods in order to enact his vengeance. There’s also a chance that one of the Egyptian gods will betray Gorr during the series, which is why he starts seeking out others. If Gorr doesn't appear in Moon Knight, the theory says that maybe he gets to the MCU during a timeline split in Multiverse of Madness.
Strangely, Gorr was entirely absent from the recently released trailer, which may hint that his reveal will be coming in one of the current Marvel projects. Moon Knight seems like a good candidate, but would Marvel reveal such a huge character played by an A-list actor in one of its Disney Plus shows?
In the Marvel Comics, Gorr and Thor came face to face many times, so if Moon Knight introduces Gorr in some manner, it’s not unreasonable to assume that he’d go after the Asgardian gods next. Given Gorr’s connection to Thor in the comics, releasing a Love and Thunder trailer with Gorr present would surely spoil Moon Knight before the limited series concludes, assuming Gorr plays a role in taking down the Egyptian gods.
Episode 3 of Moon Knight confirmed that the MCU has its own version of the Overvoid, an isolated place where the Egyptian gods can live separately from the mortal world. If Gorr finds the Overvoid, he’d be able to kill them all in their true forms, without having to take down their Avatars. The Reddit theory speculates that Khonshu will be spared from Gorr’s wrath if he’s able to hide himself safely within Marc Spector/Steven Grant, since he's now banned from the Overvoid.