Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi reveals how he convinced Natalie Portman to return to the MCU

The character of Jane Foster from the first two Thor movies was not well received. Many critics felt that it was a problematic portrayal of a female character.

This criticism of the character even led to the awarding-winning comedy series South Park, parodying the character in an episode.

The actress was also not pleased that Patty Jenkins was replaced by Marvel , Jenkins was originally set to direct The Drak World.

So it came as no surprise when Natalie Portman left the role after Thor: The Dark World and her absence was explained away in Avengers: Age of Ultron with a throwaway line.

But thanks to how writer/director Taika Waititi reinvigorated the franchise with Thor: Ragnorok, Portman agreed to return for the next installment after talking to him.

In Thor: Love and Thunder Jane Foster returns wielding Mjolnir and takes on the mantle of The Mighty Thor, her character arc in the movie is based on the comic books by Jason Aaron.

Jane acquires the powers of Thor while she is undergoing cancer treatment, how exactly the movie's story arc will differ from the movie remains to be seen.

In a recent interview with Fandango Waititi explained how he met with Natalie Portman personally about Thor: Love and Thunder.

"I went to her house and she gave me a glass of water… I think that what we did with Ragnarok was, it made these movies appealing to other actors as well, like Christian [Bale] really he saw that and he was like, "I want to do something fun," and came here, wanted to be part of this thing. And Natalie too and… I think that she was just wanting to make sure that… I don’t even know how to say this, but… her character in those first few films"

He continued 

"it’s probably not the most exciting version of the female character that we want from these films… I had to just talk to her about the fact that I wanted to change that character, just like we’d changed Thor’s character for Ragnarok, and to give her a bit more license to be adventurous and fun because Natalie’s a really funny person. And sometimes… those sorts of things cannot… I don’t know, they’re not the main focus when they come up with characters and you know in films."

And unlike her previous appearances In Love and Thunder Jane Foster will team up With Thor and Valkyrie( Tessa Thompson) to take on Gorr: The God Butcher (Christian Bale) and not be pushed to the sidelines.

Thor: Love and Thunder will hit theaters on July 8th.