Both in the comics and the films, Marvel’s Thor franchise tends to only draw loosely from the Norse mythology. This was evident in last year’s Ragnarok, which saw its titular event play out in a very different way from the old legend. According to a new fan theory, however, not only is Ragnarok still not complete, but the upcoming Avengers 4 could see the MCU hew just a little closer than expected to the Norse prophecies by giving Chris Hemsworth’s character a fatal sendoff.
To break it down concisely, a recent piece of Reddit speculation observes how in the original version of Ragnarok, several of the gods die, including Heimdall, Loki and even Thor himself. And since the Marvel equivalents of two out of these three characters have already been killed at the hands of Thanos, this allegedly suggests that Ragnarok won’t be finished until the God of Thunder also perishes in the fight against the Mad Titan.
Seeing how the Infinity War sequel is widely expected to wrap up the character arcs of a few Phase 1 Avengers, it certainly seems possible that Thor will meet with a sad end in next year’s release, but it’s pretty hard to imagine this prophecy being the reason for it.
Putting aside the all-round lack of evidence for the prediction, it’s worth remembering that Ragnarok itself was of little relevance to the events of Infinity War, save for giving the Asgardians a reason to be drifting through space at the start. So for Avengers 4 to incorporate this event into its Thanos-based action would seem highly out of place, especially since Ragnarok will be almost two years old by the time Thor’s next film comes out.
But regardless of whether Hemsworth’s character emerges from the events of his upcoming movie alive, here’s hoping he can at least make up for his oft-referenced Infinity War blunder when Avengers 4 comes out on May 3rd, 2019.