Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey has detailed her character cut from the final edit of Marvel blockbuster Thor: Love and Thunder.
Taika Waititi’s follow-up the universally adored Thor: Ragnarok arrived in July 2022 to mixed reviews, with reports suggesting that it had received significant cuts and reshoots during its post-production to try and better work it into shape.
Several actors filmed scenes that were ultimately removed from the movie, including Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, none of whom appear at all in the movie’s final release. Of those, Goldblum and Dinklage were known to be reprising their roles from previous Marvel projects — though Headey’s character has remained more mysterious, until now.
Speaking to ScreenRant, Headey said she had played one of a coven of witches who helped Thor as he navigated the “underworld” — likely the film’s Shadow Realm location, where Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher dwells. Headey also revealed several other actors also playing witches who also had their appearances cut: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (of Only Murders in the Building fame), as well as Australian actor Angus Sampson (Tucker in the Insidious films).
“I wasn’t in it, but I worked on it,” Headey said. “There were three of us. We were [a] coven of witches. I think it was Taika’s invention, and they were kind of Thor’s guide in the underworld, but they were very, very funny and kind of insane.
“I think there was this whole story of like, ‘They got fired,’ when actually it was just like, ‘What are they doing here?’,” Headey continued. “But I think the intention was to find this land for them to have their own adventures. It was myself, Angus Sampson, and Da’Vine Joy, so it was quite a trio of madness.”
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Ultimately, even with the changes made to Thor: Love and Thunder during post-production, the film remains one of the least-liked entries in the MCU, with widespread complaints that the movie failed to deliver a coherant story with emotional stakes as it is more focused on being silly.
Hemsworth has admitted he “didn’t stick the landing” with the divisive Thor: Love and Thunder and said he felt he owed fans another film. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Hemsworth said he had become too wacky in Love and Thunder and the film suffered as a result, perhaps especially following Thor: Ragnarok, which became somewhat of a breakout success for the character by adding more comedy elements. Waititi, meanwhile, has said he will not be back to direct another Thor film any time soon.
Last year, Hemsworth released a tribute video titled ‘Thank You! The Legacy of Thor,’ which included clips of the actor as Thor going as far back as an audition tape right up to his performance in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. Some fans took it as a farewell video. Hemsworth later insisted the video was “a moment of gratitude, and it wasn’t anything else.” Still, the character’s Avengers: Doomsday trailer certainly featured a darker tone than we’ve seen from Thor’s recent MCU appearances, as it showed the hero praying to his father for the safety of his adopted daughter, Love. What happens next with the character remains to be seen, though there’s no suggestion Headey’s character will ever be seen again.
Image credit: Lisa O’Connor / AFP via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
