Kenneth Branagh's Thor 5 MCU pitch sounds a lot like this Marvel masterpiece

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is almost 20 years old, and Thor has been around since nearly the beginning. Chris Hemsworth debuted as the God of Thunder in 2011’s Thor, which turns 15 on May 6. And it turns out, all these years later, director Kenneth Branagh (yep, Hercule Poirot directed an MCU film) is still thinking about what he would have liked to do with the character had he stuck around in the MCU.

“Part of me would love to finish my relationship with that character. I'd always wanted to do more and indeed had a couple of ideas, more in the territory of James Mangold's brilliant Logan,” Branagh told Business Insider in a recent Q&A. “I would love to see Chris Hemsworth and the others have their own individual final story that takes Thor into a glorious twilight.”

Thor is nowhere near his twilight in the MCU. This is a god who can and will, in theory, live for eons. Though 1,500 years old in the MCU, he’s still a young pup. The comics his films are based on, however, much more freely jump through time and continuity. Because of that, it turns out that Thor has already been given a Logan-style, “glorious twilight” story.

Image: Marvel Studios

Jason Aaron is a prolific comics writer, and one of his seminal works is his Thor run from 2012 to 2019. Even if you don’t read comics, you’re likely familiar with his creations as the MCU borrowed heavily from his work in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. With artist Esad Ribic, he created Gorr the God Butcher and, with artist Russell Dauterman, turned Jane Foster into The Mighty Thor — both of whom appeared in the fourth Thor film.

Aaron’s work on Thor culminated in the Ribic-illustrated 2019 miniseries King Thor, which is something of Thor’s own Old Man Logan story. A future version of Thor plays a heavy part in the comics’ Gorr storyline (because of time travel shenanigans), and he stars in the miniseries set eons in the future. Like so many Thor stories, King Thor features a climactic clash between brothers Thor and Loki. No matter how much time has passed, Loki still wants to kill his brother. Some things never change! The action in King Thor’s pages is wonderful, including Thor exploding a planet full of napalm and using his own intestines entwined with Mjolnir to send Loki flying into a star.

Loki wields All-Black the Necrosword, the same weapon Gorr used to butcher countless gods in Aaron and Ribic’s first Thor stories. And where the All-Black goes, so does Gorr. All things end where they begin, and Aaron and Ribic end this seven-year saga with a battle amid the cosmos against Gorr.

Esad Ribić/Marvel Comics

Between the hammer smashes and planet-bursting blows are ruminations on godhood and reconciliation between Thor and Loki. Because, again like so many Thor stories, the brothers come together to face a greater threat. No matter how many falling outs the brothers have had or how many times Loki has tried to kill him, Thor still won’t give up on his mischief-loving brother.

Thor’s three granddaughters, who also played key roles in the original Gorr-starring “Godbomb” storyline, return as well, riding in on Thor’s goats and a flying shark. They bring long-dormant gods back into the fold to confront Gorr, gods who were once forgotten and whom Thor helped be remembered after he escaped the clutches of Gorr the first time around.

Like Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Old Man Logan, King Thor gives Thor one last chance to confront one of his greatest foes. But instead of how Logan decapitated the Red Skull, Thor allows Gorr a much more merciful end. His decision fits the character well as Aaron has always been one to spotlight Thor’s mercy and his love, particularly for mortals; King Thor has the elder Thor protecting a newly reforged Midgard and its peoples.

Image: Jason Aaron, Esad Ribić/Marvel Comics

The Marvel Cinematic Universe would do well to give Branagh the reins once again and let him deliver Thor into his “glorious twilight.” (Especially after Taika Waititi turned the character into a caricature.) Though the MCU already killed off Gorr — and gave him some redemption in his final moments — these are superhero stories, after all. Only Uncle Ben ever remains dead. In fact, King Thor itself mostly hand waves away the return of the God Butcher; just go with it.

An ending for Thor in the MCU wouldn’t even have to be a one-to-one adaptation of the book, but instead it could adapt the spirit of King Thor. Mangold’s Logan mostly just borrowed general concepts from the Old Man Logan comics; there’s no reason the MCU couldn’t do the same in bringing the elder King Thor to the big screen.

So to the idea of Branagh returning to Thor and giving him a final MCU story, I say: “Another!”

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