Love is in the air….and it’s also in Thor: Love and Thunder!

Shadow and Act sat down with Tessa Thompson and Natalie Portman ahead of the film’s premiere in which they talked about how many people may think the title of the film is reflective of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane (Portman)’s love story — it’s much deeper than that.

It begs us to ask the question– is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in its feelings era?

“I think it’s honest and I think it also shows a kind of maturity too,” Thompson said of the film. “I think sometimes we can get too wholly focused when we think about love stories in romantic love. That’s obviously a huge part of life and it’s what brings life into the world in some way. So it’s an incredible thing to explore. But in terms of making an offering that a lot of people can relate to the truth is not everyone has romantic love or access to it. And even the kind of romantic love that we see on screen, we don’t always feel seen by those depictions of love depending on who we love and how we love as humans. So, I think being able to really explore love and a film and diversity of the presentation of love is really important and certainly was fun for us with this one.”

Portman said the ability to do this was mostly capable at least in part due to director Taika Waititi’s sensibilities.

“I feel like Taika’s sensibility is so incredible because he’s able to combine this incredibly wacky, ridiculous humor with genuine heartfelt emotion and depth,” she said. “And it’s such an amazing ability that I don’t think I’ve really seen in anybody else. And I think it’s a great thing for the MCU audience because there’s so much enjoyment, but there’s also meaning and there’s like a real goodness…like a real kindness in the sentiment that that feels earned.”

The actress also spoke about her grand MCU return and how it’s nothing that she could have ever imagined after doing the first two Thor films. Since her initial MCU appearances, the status of women in comic book and superhero movies has also changed.

“When I signed on [for the first films], the Mighty Thor [comic] wasn’t even written yet,” she explained. “So it was not part of my imagination of where the character could go. I felt so lucky that the comic book writers and artists who imagined the Mighty Thor added that to her journey. And to see the women’s roles flourish within the MCU has been incredible, so that it feels like young kids now, looking at these characters can really choose who they relate to emotionally, what their special powers are [and] what their personality is like as to determine which one they identify with as opposed to being like, ‘Oh, there was one girl and that’s got to be me,’ which is how I felt growing up looking at superheroes.”

Watch the full interviews below: