The first Thor: Love and Thunder teaser arrived on April 18, 2022. As the probable final Thor movie starring Chris Hemsworth as the lead character, it brought a sense of wrapping up the loose ends, with images of Thor from his younger years and in his previous costumes and having the god declare himself retired.

But don’t worry. There’s already a new God of Thunder in town, and she looks fierce.

The second Thor: Love and Thunder trailer arrived on May 23, narrated by director Taika Waititi as his character, Korg. It gave fans their first proper look at Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher and Russell Crowe as Zeus.

Also? Thor gets naked! But Chris Hemsworth’s blurred-out butt isn’t the only thing going on in that brief scene. Take a long look at his back at the 2-minute mark. (His back, I said!) There’s a brand new tattoo of Loki’s helmet and all the symbols of his late brother, including a broken heart and the words RIP LOKI.

One can only hope Loki notices this touching tribute the next time the TVA has him check in on Thor’s whereabouts.

Here’s a close-up.

Marvel has confirmed four leading roles for Love and Thunder:

• Hemsworth returns as Thor
• Tessa Thompson returns as Valkyrie
• Portman will come back after sitting out from Thor: Ragnarok as Jane Foster, who has become Lady Thor
• Christian Bale has been cast as Gorr the God Butcher

While audiences already know the first three leading roles, Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher is a new face. According to the comics, Gorr grew up on a barren planet, believing gods could not exist. If they did, why would they let his family and people suffer? When he learned gods did exist, he vowed to murder them all.

The trailers also confirmed several rumored appearances: Waititi as Korg, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy with cameos in the film. (That makes sense, as Thor took off with the GotG crew at the end of Avengers: Endgame.)

Another actor confirmed for the film: Russell Crowe. According to Deadline, Marvel initially meant his appearance to be a surprise cameo, but leaked pictures from the set gave it away, so now he’s in the trailers. Marvel is not confirming him officially, and no one knows who he is playing. Considering the “surprise cameo” status, it could be a play on his famous Gladiator character, but no one knows for sure.

Also, set pictures from Australia via The Daily Mail confirm another A-lister joining the cast: Melissa McCarthy. The photos show McCarthy dressed as someone fans will instantly recognize: Hela, Thor: Ragnarok’s villain. Played by Cate Blanchett, Hela’s green and black headdress became instantly iconic. But she met her demise in the last film, so her return might seem odd to audiences. However, if these pictures are correct, McCarthy’s appearance as “Hela” is part of Waititi’s ongoing play-within-a-movie gag, in which an acting troupe recreates scenes from earlier films. Both Chris Hemsworth’s brother Luke and Matt Damon, who played “Thor” and “Loki” in the last gag (respectively), were reportedly spotted on set with McCarthy too. Sadly, fan favorites like Sif and Loki are still unconfirmed at this time.

On Dec. 10, Marvel confirmed Natalie Portman's Instagram that the movie would begin principal photography in Australia at the beginning of 2021, and filming wrapped in June. But for a long time, all anyone had was the key art logo. It gives the film an old-school 1980s vibe, one that's all the fun of an old Conan movie with the joy of a Marvel film. Somehow each logo gets more 80s than the last and still looks fantastic.

The photo of Portman holding Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, says it all. The fourth (and most likely final) Thor outing will bring Portman back as Jane Foster, but with a twist. The earth-bound love interest from the first two Thor movies has become Lady Thor, a superhero in her own right.

Though there has been no confirmation one way or another, most fans suspect this story will be pulled from the 2014-2015 Thor run and followed by 2015's The Mighty Thor.

But fans should be warned: Even though this run of titles is a fantastic story, it's also sadder than one might expect. In them, Jane is dying of incurable cancer, which causes her to gain this power, so prepare to sob if the movie follows this story.

It's anyone's guess how much (or how little) of The Mighty Thor Waititi will pull from filling out the story. Though Portman has never openly bad-mouthed her time in the first Thor films, it was generally understood she disliked them because the scripts gave her character so little to do. Whatever this film has in store, most audiences assume Jane Foster will be front and center, and Portman will have a role worth sinking her teeth into.

Also, there's the Thompson angle. Marvel has confirmed Valkyrie's character will be far more openly LGBTQ+ onscreen than she previously was and will have a relationship storyline. Whether that's with Foster or somebody else is a matter of speculation.

And then there are the Guardians, who have shown up in both trailers, but the credits list as guest stars, not full cast members. Hemsworth's team-up with the GotG gang in the final Avengers films had fans hoping for an Asgardians of the Galaxy movie. But so far, that's all fan theories.

When Thor: Love and Thunder was announced at SDCC 2019, it was set to come out as the final film in the revealed Phase 4 run on Nov. 5, 2021. But all that’s gone out the window. The whole Marvel lineup shifted back between the addition of Spider-Man 3 by Sony to the lineup and the Hollywood lockdowns.

Thor: Love and Thunder’s has shifted several times as Phase 4 slowly backed up into 2021. There was a point when the film was the spring anchor for 2022, replacing Black Panther 2 as the May blockbuster, which was forced to delay when lead actor Chadwick Boseman passed away in August 2020. But since then, the schedule has slipped back again, and now the film is planned for summer

Thor: Love and Thunder is scheduled to premiere on July 8, 2022.