Original Avenger making a Marvel comeback for potential goodbye project

The Avengers have been the glue that has held the Marvel Cinematic Universe together since their debut as a team in 2012. The franchise had certainly been doing well prior to that, with standalone movies focused on Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor holding their own at the box office. But it was when The Avengers brought those characters (plus Hawkeye and Black Widow) together, that the MCU achieved its first of many billion-dollar success stories.

The fourth film in the Avengers saga, Avengers: Endgame, brought about the end of an era for the Infinity Saga, ending the long-running Thanos arc and gifting fans with one of the greatest cinematic battles of all time. The events of the 2019 movie have rippled through the franchise ever since, particularly because three of the original six Avengers were taken off the board in that film (Iron Man and Black Widow sacrificed themselves to save everyone else, while Captain America finally retired to spend his years with the woman he loves). That leaves Hawkeye, Hulk, and Thor; all of whom have had less-active roles since the Multiverse Saga began.

Rumor has it that all three of them will return in some capacity, but for one it might be the beginning of the end of their time with the franchise too.

Chris Hemsworth's Thor 5 will likely happen (and may be the final appearance for the God of Thunder)

According to industry scooper HWScoops (Via: Film News), Chris Hemsworth will return to the MCU for a fifth Thor movie after Avengers: Secret Wars, but it will most likely serve as his "final Thor appearance". Now, there are multiple parts of this report to analyze, but it would support a number of ongoing rumors about Thor 5 and its apparent place in the God of Thunder's story.

Hemsworth's most recent appearance as the character came in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder when he defeated Gorr the God Butcher and vowed to protect his daughter from harm. The two became quite the pair, with Thor looking after the child and the duo forming a superhero team known as Love and Thunder. Even though the movie itself wasn't all that well-received by fans, the storyline would have been a fitting conclusion to Thor's arc as it allowed him to find a semblance of happiness and understand the importance of being a good leader - a lesson he spent the entire franchise learning.

However, the post-credits tag did tell us that "Thor will return" to the franchise. Though Marvel Studios has yet to officially bring Thor back, the likely place for his return will be Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars when a team of multiversal heroes are rumored to unite to stop the threat of Doctor Doom (played by the returning Robert Downey Jr.).

That brings us to the Thor 5 of it all. The movie has been rumored for quite some time, with fans hoping that Marvel plans to officially greenlight it in the near-future. It won't happen before Avengers: Secret Wars, which very much suggests that the God of Thunder will survive the events of the film. That's certainly a good thing but it does raise the question of whether that fifth movie will happen.

In recent months, it's been reported that Marvel is planning to bring Hemsworth back for one last hurrah with a more serious Thor movie that would make up for the shortcomings of the fourth installment and its very silly tone. This is something that Hemsworth himself feels very strongly about, revealing in an interview with Vanity Fair that he feels he owes the fans one more movie after that one.

The mid-credits scene of Love and Thunder did leave breadcrumbs for a sequel involving Hercules, who will seemingly seek vengeance on the God of Thunder for defeating his father Zeus. And we all know that the MCU loves to follow up on the breadcrumbs in its post-credits scenes. So Thor 5 will probably happen, and if it changes its tone, it could be glorious. The only question is: Will it be a grand farewell for yet another original Avenger?