Taika Waititi stokes rumours that 'Thor 4' will bring a MCU character back from the dead

As we saw last week, Chris Hemsworth is already limbering up for Thor: Love and Thunder, which is set to roll cameras after Christmas.

He was spotted lifting heavy things, having shifted his 'Bro Thor' timber from Avengers: Endgame.

But someone else might be limbering up for the movie too, which is no mean feat when you're supposed to be dead.

Director Taika Waititi posted a shot to his Instagram of a trip to visit the All Blacks rugby team last week, and he's got a pal with him.

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“Me and @idriselba visited the @allblacks last week and I think we can all agree that's what inspired last night's win,” he captioned.

While we're quite sure that Waititi and Elba are very good pals once the cameras stop rolling, this does seem in rather close proximity to the pre-production of the latest in Marvel's Thor series.

Elba, of course, played the all-seeing, all-knowing Heimdall, protector of the Bifröst, in 2011's Thor, 2013's Thor: The Dark World, 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2017's Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War in 2018.

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The only problem with all this is that he got a bit stabbed by Thanos in Infinity War, and then died.

But as we all know, no one is too dead to be brought back to life somehow in the Marvel universe. Other than Tony Stark, perhaps.

But it's not inconceivable that Heimdall, who is a deity after all, could return to the action somehow.

In an interview last year, Elba seemed very open to returning indeed.

“Of course,” he told We Got This Covered. “Listen, Heimdall is essentially part of the god family. So you know, he essentially could be alive. I'm just saying! I'm just putting it out there.

“The Heimdall character goes way back into, you know, the Thor mythology. And I'm sure there will be an interesting way to bring that alive. Of course I would. Yes.”

The plot for Love and Thunder remains a mystery too, though we do know that Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is returning, and may take up the mantle and powers of Thor.

The movie, part of Marvel's Phase Four and also featuring Chris Pratt returning as Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, is set for release on 11 February, 2022.

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