Chris Hemsworth Honors First Nations People as “Thor: Love and Thunder” Starts Filming

January 26, 2021

In an Instagram post marking Thor: Love and Thunder‘s start of filming, star Chris Hemsworth took the opportunity to pay tribute to the history of First Nations people in Australia, where Hemsworth and the Love and Thunder cast and crew are getting to work.

The production was welcomed by a performance of “Welcome to the Country” by Gamay dancers of the Bidgiagal and Gadigal Nation, as well as Maori dancers from Te Aranganui. Here’s what Hemsworth wrote in his post: “Indigenous Australians may be just as proud of this country, but many see January 26th as a date signifying the beginning of dispossession, disease epidemics, frontier violence, destruction of culture, exploitation, abuse, separation of families and subjection to policies of extreme social control. Let’s begin the healing and stand together in unity and support with our First Nations people with solidarity and compassion. Let’s find a date where all Australians can celebrate this beautiful country together.”

Hemsworth is, of course, Australian, and co-writer/director Taika Waititi hails from New Zealand and is of partly Maori descent. Check out the Instagram post below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

Thor: Love and Thunder follows Waititi’s gangbuster’s 2017 hit Thor: Ragnarok, a kaleidoscopic cosmic romp that marked his entrance to the MCU in singular style. Love and Thunder comes from a script Waititi wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Someone Great) and will feature the return of Natalie Portman as Jane—only now she’ll be wielding Mjolnir as a female Thor, based on Jason Aaron’s run on “The Mighty Thor” comics. Tessa Thompson returns as Valkyrie, and another big-name, Christian Bale, makes his first appearance in a Marvel movie (you might recall he played a certain Caped Crusader in a DC Films trilogy) as Gorr the God Butcher, the film’s big bad.

Thor: Love and Thunder is due in theaters on May 6, 2022.

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