'Thor 4' recruits new screenwriter to work on script

Marvel Studios has reportedly added a new writer to work on 2021’s Thor: Love and Thunder.

According to Variety, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is working on the script for the fourth Thor film, written by its director Taika Waititi, as the film nears the start of production later this year. The film is due to shoot at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia from March. It’s not clear whether she’ll be credited as a co-writer on the film.

Chris Hemsworth will return as the God of Thunder, who we last saw at the end of Avengers: Endgame jetting into space with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and he’ll be joined by Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, returning to the MCU for the first time since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World.

As announced at San Diego Comic Con last July, Foster will wield the power of Thor in Love and Thunder. "Feels pretty good. I've always had a little hammer envy," Portman told the Hall H crowd after being handed the hammer by Waititi. Tessa Thompson will also return as Valkyrie.

Read more: Taika says Korg will return in Thor 4

32-year-old filmmaker Robinson started out as a jobbing actress before finding her calling as a writer. She created her first television series Sweet/Vicious in 2015, and the teen vigilante show (described as “offbeat feminist superhero tale”) aired for one season on MTV before it was cancelled in 2017.

She then wrote, directed and produced the 2019 Netflix film Someone Great for Paul Feig’s production company. The film starring Gina Rodriguez and Brittany Snow was warmly received by critics.

“I look at JJ Abrams, and I’m like: That’s the kind of career I want,” Robinson told LA Times while promoting the film in 2019. “There are a lot of men that are titans of the industry, and very few empires that are centered in women’s stories. I don’t just want the empire, I want a purposeful empire.”

Waititi said he had finished the script for God and Thunder in October 2019, but it’s not uncommon for new writers being brought in to polish up scripts, and he’s probably fairly busy right now.

After winning his first Oscar on Sunday night, Jojo Rabbit writer-director Waititi is one of the most in-demand filmmakers in the world. He’s just finished shooting his next film, true life footy film Next Goal Wins starring Michael Fassbender, he’s starred in and directed an episode of The Mandalorian, and exec produced second seasons of What We Do In The Shadows and Wellington Paranormal.

He recently denied reports that he’s also developing his own Star Wars movie.

The New Zealand filmmaker won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 92nd Academy Awards.