Marvel is no stranger to “tweaking” their trailers to give away as little information as possible. Before, it was things like making Spider-Man’s suit a different color in trailers for Avengers: Infinity War. Now it’s leveled up to things like fully editing out different Spider-Men in Spider-Man: No Way Home to hilarious effect. The trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder dropped earlier this morning and it’s safe to say that Marvel is up to their shenanigans again.

In the image above, it’s Thor and Korg with a huge gap to their left. Normally, framing in movies puts the hero/protagonist in the center, so that’s correct here. But we don’t normally have huge gaps of unused space. Well, that might explain that whoever is standing next to Thor in this picture is pretty integral to the plot of Thor: Love and Thunder.

As for information about Thor: Love and Thunder that we know for sure; we know that Christian Bale is playing the villain of the film, Gorr. We also know that Russell Crowe is playing a character in the film that is likely Zeus. Returning are Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Taika Waititi as Korg and directing/writing the film, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, and the Guardians of the Galaxy make an appearance (Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, and Pom Klementieff).

However, there are a couple of options for who could be standing next to Thor in this shot.

Jane Foster/Mighty Thor

They saved this for the “money shot” of the first trailer, but judging by Thor’s clothes, unless he wears his Jack Burton outfit for the entirety of the film (Funko Pops seem to debunk that), it might not be Jane Foster’s, Lady Thor. That shot could also mask where in the film she appears for the first time. A moment of her grabbing Mjolnir would be huge, and so Marvel/Disney could be faking us all out. This is probably the most likely considering the course of the story, but we’ll have to see.

Either way, Jane Foster is showing up as a variant/version of Thor in the film. After such a long time of expecting it, and sort of teasing it somehow, Marvel is pulling the trigger on giving us a different version of Thor. From the looks of the trailer and set photos, she’s absolutely awesome.

Hercules

Thor: Love and Thunder is all about gods and the things they go through in their ascended lives. Hercules has been teased a couple of times in leaks from the set of Love and Thunder, but there’s nothing concrete to work on here. The scene is rumored to be a fight between Thor and Hercules about something childish and petty (Thor being petty, never!), with the Guardians cheering them on. Guessing from Thor’s outfit, this scene is probably near the beginning of the film, unless of course, he keeps the vest the entire time.

Hercules has a well-trodden history in Marvel comics, battling Thor on multiple occasions, and even over Jane Foster’s attention at one point. Russell Crowe is rumored to be playing Zeus, the father of Hercules in the film, so if Taika Waititi introduces non-Asgardian gods for Gorr, The God Butcher to do his thing with, Hercules is a likely choice for this scene.

Beta Ray Bill

Okay, here’s the long-shot choice.

Beta Ray Bill would be the absolute perfect character for Taika Waititi to introduce to audiences. He already has powers and physical attributes similar to Thor, and he’s worthy of Mjolnir. Bill was originally a monster that turned out to be one of Marvel’s greatest heroes. He was the first non-Norse Pantheon character in the comics to be introduced as being worthy of Thor’s hammer. There was originally supposed to be a cameo by Bill in Thor: Ragnarok but they canned it because it wasn’t worthy of Bill’s character. There really isn’t a more perfect time for Marvel to introduce the cyborg than in Thor: Love and Thunder. Bill was featured as one of the sculptures on the side of the Grandmaster’s Palace.

The two characters above would make the most sense to include in the film from a storyline standpoint; although having Beta Ray Bill show up in Thor: Love and Thunder would be the most awesome.

So, who do you think shows up in Thor: Love and Thunder? Do you want to see any of these characters or someone else?

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