Marvel's 'Thor: Love and Thunder' is the MCU's second chance to do justice to an iconic comic book villain
There’s a lot of things the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets right but one major flaw with the hit movie franchise is its treatment of its villains. For every Thanos, there's a Yellowjacket (does anyone even remember that guy?). Many bad guys who could have been brilliant on-screen have ended up being turned into one-off baddies who barely manage to live up to their comic book versions.
During the Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, plans for a new Thor movie directed by Taika Waititi were unveiled. The movie is officially titled, 'Thor: Love and Thunder' and will be adapting Jason Aaron's hit comic book series 'The Mighty Thor'.
'The Mighty Thor' features the eponymous hero going up against the evil Malekith, an extremely dark and cunning villain who almost manages to conquer all the realms. The MCU introduced Malekith in 'Thor: The Dark World' with Christopher Eccleston playing the part but that Malekith is nowhere near as cool or diabolical as his comic book counterpart.
The Malekith of the comics is a skilled schemer who expertly manipulates all those around him to get his way and wreaks havoc across the realms, enacting gruesome tortures with a very twisted sense of humor. In comparison, the movie version of Malekith was little more than a shadowy villain with an extremely vague plan to destroy the universe.
Not only did MCU's Malekith fail to pose any real threat to Thor, but he was also too much of a departure from the comics to ever play as big a role as the one he does in 'The Mighty Thor'. If Marvel wants to do justice to the storyline of 'The Mighty Thor', they really need to first do justice to Malekith.
We don’t know how they might bring him back, seeing as the last time we saw Malekith, he was crushed under his own ship. It's not entirely impossible that he could have survived that unfortunate end. After all, this is a story about gods and monsters. But if Marvel does bring him back, they will have to make some changes to the character, for starters by swapping out his grim, quiet demeanor for the cackling madness of the comic book Malekith.
In all probability, Marvel will replace Malekith with another villain in 'Thor: Love and Thunder', but fans of the Dark Elf leader would love to see the character brought back with all the cruelty and dark humor of his comic book counterpart. Taika Waititi has already proven that Asgardians and humor make a good combo with 'Thor: Ragnarok' so perhaps he could be the director who saves Malekith the Accursed from being written off as just another inconsequential villain.
'Thor: Love and Thunder' is slated for release on November 5, 2021.