Thor: Love and Thunder: The major Easter Eggs and Marvel references you might have missed
Thor: Love and Thunder is now on Disney Plus. That gives you ample time to pause, rewind, and check through all of the hidden Easter eggs and Marvel references that director Taika Waititi has packed throughout the god-killing adventure.
To help make your Easter egg hunt a little more fruitful, we've combed through the movie to bring you its biggest secrets and pop culture deep cuts. Everything from comic book nods to ink-credible Loki tattoos are listed below.
Thor 4 Easter Eggs
Thor’s t-shirt with the Yggdrasil on it
During his opening scene with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor can be seen wearing a shirt with Yggdrasil on it. This is the World Tree in Norse mythology, which holds up the Nine Realms, including Asgard, Jotunheim, and Niflheim. This doesn’t play into the plot of the movie but is a nice nod to Thor’s comic book and Old Norse history.
Thor’s goats: Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder,
After Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy help save a planet at the beginning of Thor: Love and Thunder, the God of Thunder receives a gift for his efforts. He is given two screaming goats, who fans of the comics will know are Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder. These are Thor’s trusty mystical goats who pull his chariot. In Thor: Love and Thunder, they get the slightly less glamorous job of pulling a tourist Viking ship.
Thor’s handshake with Star-Lord
When Thor and Star-Lord are parting ways to head on their own missions, Thor wants to do a special handshake with the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. This starts as a "human handshake, to the Asgardian handshake, into the snake that you cannot trust, and finish with a classic Asgardian high one." While we never saw Loki and Thor do this handshake themselves, the reference to the "snake" could be a nod to the God of Mischief. As you may remember, in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor told a story about a time when they were children when Loki turned into a snake. Then when Thor went to pick the snake up, Loki returned to normal form and stabbed him – hence a "snake you cannot trust".
References to Event Horizon and Interstellar
When Dr. Jane Foster is in the hospital receiving her chemotherapy treatment, she winds up sitting next to a young man reading her book. She takes the opportunity to explain to him how the Einstein–Rosen bridge – or wormholes as they’re also known – works. Jane says it’s just like in Event Horizon and Interstellar. At the beginning of Event Horizon, Dr. Weir explains how wormholes work by taking a poster, folding it in half, and poking a pen through it. In Interstellar, Dr. Romilly does something very similar, folding over a piece of paper and poking a hole through it. In Thor: Love and Thunder, Jane does the exact same thing by tearing out a page of her own book, calling back to both of these moments.
New Asgard ice cream shop called Infinity Conez
In Thor: Love and Thunder, New Asgard has been transformed into a tourist destination for Avengers fans. The town is full of nods to Marvel, including an ice cream shop called Infinity Conez. The shop’s sign features an Infinity Gauntlet holding an ice cream cone, complete with six candles representing the six Infinity Stones. Waititi gave Entertainment Tonight a look at this on the set, joking: "As you can see here, a little special invention just for the film, which I have heard on quite good know-how that it’s going to make it into real-life one day, is this ice cream shop here called 'Infinity Conez.' So keep an eye out for that."
Falligar the Behemoth
When Lady Sif calls on Thor for aid in Gorr the God Butcher’s attacks, he finds her next to Falligar the Behemoth. The huge hyena-looking creature has been felled by Gorr who’s on a mission with his Necrosword to kill all Gods. Falligar is the Patron God of the Galactic Frontier and champion of the Tournament of Immortals, as well as being a friend of Thor’s. This shot of him lying dead is taken directly from the Thor: God of Thunder #3 comic, which was published in December 2012.
Nick Fury is under ‘Nick Furry’ on Thor’s phone
During the flashback to Thor and Jane’s relationship, we learn they broke up because they were both so busy with work. During the montage, Jane is constantly being called away while Thor has to disappear and save the world. At one point, he receives a call from Nick Fury on his mobile, but eagle-eyed viewers will notice he has cheekily renamed him Nick Furry.
Thor's Loki tattoo
Now we know that Loki doesn’t appear in Thor: Love and Thunder. However, there is a major reference to Thor’s brother in the Omnipotence City scene in the movie. Thor is wearing a disguise when he goes to meet Zeus, which the leader of the Gods "flicks" off, revealing he isn’t wearing anything underneath. On his back, there’s a clear tribute to Loki, who died at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. This features Loki’s helmet and a broken heart alongside the words: "R.I.P. Loki". Of course, an alternate version of Loki is alive in the MCU. This is the Loki who seized an opportunity with the Tesseract to disappear after the main characters went back in time in Avengers: Endgame. However, he’s a bit busy with the Time Variance Authority – which you can read all about in our Loki season 2 guide. Another part of the tattoo also features a scroll with the names of characters who have died in it. Among the list are: Loki, Mother, Father, Heimdall, Tony, and Natasha.
Cameos
There are loads of cameos peppered throughout Thor: Love and Thunder. Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Sam Neill are back as the Asgardian thesps. Kat Dennings returns as Jane's friend Darcy, as too does Stellan Skarsgard's Erik Selvig. Daryl from Team Thor even shows up as an Asgardian tour guide.
Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale makes a cameo as one of the Gods in Omnipotence City, which is overseen by Russell Crowe cameoing as Zeus. As well as this, Chris Hemsworth’s, Taika Waititi’s, Natalie Portman’s, and Christian Bale’s kids all also have roles in the movie, with India Rose Hemsworth playing a central character. However, it’s in the post-credits scene that we get the biggest cameo when a new character is introduced to the MCU. Brett Goldstein appears as Hercules. His character has a long history with Thor in the comics, and it seems he may even be a potential adversary to the God of Thunder in the future as well. For more, check out our guide to all the Thor: Love and Thunder cameos and to Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder.
The statues at Eternity
The final battle between Thor and Gorr the God Butcher takes place at the gate to Eternity. However, if you look in the background of this scene, you can see multiple statues lining the walls. Among them appears to be Uatu The Watcher, who played a big role in the Disney Plus What If? series. He is an observer of the multiverse and is voiced by Jeffrey Wright. This is seemingly his first appearance in live-action in the MCU. It’s not confirmed who the other statues are in this scene, but they appear to be The Living Tribunal, who is the personification of multiversal law, as well as Infinity and Death who are among the four cosmic entities who forged the Infinity Stones.
Celestials
Two unnamed Celestials (the giant Eternal-creating deities) were briefly glimpsed during the scenes on Omnipotence City. As Thor and the team fly away, they are seen poking their heads into the building where Zeus was holding court.
Space dolphins
One of Thor: Love and Thunder's strangest sights is also an Easter egg. Go figure. Thor points out the space dolphins, beings of supreme love who roam around in packs of six, as they head towards the Shadow Realm.
This is likely a reference to the run of Jason Aaron, the comic book writer who heavily influences the plot of Love and Thunder and introduced Gorr the God Butcher to the world. In his run, they attacked Thor (and an older Thor) during their final battle with Gorr.
Necrosword
Gorr's Necrosword, the all-corrupting sword used to slay gods, was also the villain's weapon of choice in the comics.
There, the Necrosword holds slightly different origins. Instead of being passed down from generation to generation at the dawn of time, it was created by evil symbiote god Knull to aid in his god-killing crusade. It eventually ends up in the hands of Gorr.
Thor: Love and Thunder likely doesn't use this version of the Necrosword likely due to being tangled up in movie rights. If it's a symbiote sword, there's every chance it could only be used with permission of Sony or in a Sony/Marvel movie. The previous owner of the Necrosword was slain by Dionysus in the movie, but he's not named.
Team Thor
Thor: Love and Thunder features a cameo from the series of Marvel shorts that Waititi wrote and directed back in 2016. These were set between Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok and featured Thor moving in with a new housemate called Darryl Jacobson (played by Daley Pearson). He makes a cameo in the latest MCU movie as a tour guide in New Asgard. While it’s not clear if he’s still playing Darryl in the scene, it’s a fun nod to the internet series.
Cocktail reference
There’s a reference to the 1988 Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. On the outside of the Viking boat that’s transporting Thor and the gang to Eternity, there is a neon sign reading "Cocktails and Dreams". This is the name of the chain of bars Cruise’s character is hoping to open one day. Speaking to Uproxx, Waititi acknowledged the reference before adding how he’d initially hoped to include it in his previous Thor movie. He said: "My big regret with Ragnarok was not doing Cocktail. Well, probably Jeff Goldblum's big palace in Ragnarok? It should have been in there."
Was Jane snapped?
A small piece of dialogue between Thor and Jane addresses the fact she may have been among the victims of Thanos’ snap. When the pair meet again, they have a slight disagreement on how long they’ve been broken up. Jane suggests it was only three or four years, while Thor says it was "eight years, seven months, and six days, give or take". The difference in time is likely due to the fact Jane was snapped out of existence by Thanos for five years. This was seemingly confirmed in the script for Avengers: Endgame. In the notes on the scene, Jane’s name is among those listed as victims of the snap.
Potential link to Moon Knight
Thor name-drops a number of Gods ahead of him, Valkyrie, Korg, and the Mighty Thor leaving for Omnipotence City. Among them is the Egyptian god Ra, who is a part of the Moon Knight comic books. He’s not in the Disney Plus series, but should Moon Knight season 2 happen, he could potentially play a role. Moon Knight’s writer Jeremy Slater also previously told The Direct that his script included a reference to Thor as well. He was going to include some dialogue about a rumor that "Gods were being killed" in a nod to Gorr the God Butcher.
Fore more on Thor: Love and Thunder, be sure to check out our guides to:
- The Thor: Love and Thunder ending explained
- The Thor: Love and Thunder post-credits scenes explained
- When does Thor: Love and Thunder take place on the Marvel timeline?
- When to expect Thor: Love and Thunder on Disney Plus
- Who dies in Thor: Love and Thunder?
- Every cut Thor: Love and Thunder cameo, listed
- Will there be a Thor 5?
- Does Thor have a daughter in the comics?
- Is Loki in Thor: Love and Thunder?
- How to watch the Marvel movies in order
- The full Marvel timeline, explained
- Everything coming in Marvel Phase 4
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