Tessa Thompson, currently in theaters with Nia DaCosta‘s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (simply called Hedda), hasn’t lost sight of being part of one of the most profitable media franchises of all time — the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, she was asked, “What is Valkyrie’s future in the MCU?” Valkyrie, if you recall, is an Asgardian warrior who made appearances in Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder, as well as Avengers: Endgame and The Marvels, which DaCosta directed.
Her response to the query was to chuckle and say, “call Kevin Feige,” referring to the primary producer and grand visionary behind the complex web of Marvel films and television shows.
“I really like playing the character, and I like her,” she said about Valkyrie, and certainly seemed to be open to it if she were asked to “assemble” once more.
She added that “what’s so fun about those films and why there is still an audience appetite is the combination of characters, and how they change in relation to each other. So there’s tons of things I love about Valkyrie, but it’s about Valkyrie in relation to who.”
She also expressed interest in “the idea of getting to play with my friend Pedro Pascal,” who made his MCU debut this summer as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four: First Steps. “It’s real playtime, and exploring that with people you admire,” she said of what remains the big draw. “You stretch different muscles, it’s really fun.”
She specifically mentioned seeing Natalie Portman return to the Thor movies and getting to see Christian Bale, who played Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder.
“I love watching actors, I love seeing people work… under different circumstances. It’s a fun playground.”
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
The real Marvel heads know that Thompson’s Valkyrie has not only appeared in the aforementioned feature films but also in two alternate-universe animated television series. The first was What If…?, which often turned a silly question like “What if… Happy Hogan saved Christmas?” into an episode, and the second was Marvel Zombies, in which the heroes of the Marvel Universe fought the undead.
Hedda, meanwhile, also stars Imogen Poots, Nina Hoss, and Tom Bateman, and moves the story from late 19th-century Norway to an English country estate in the 1950s. It boasts a substantial 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. As the film is produced by Plan B (Brad Pitt‘s company), don’t be too surprised if DaCosta, Thompson, and the film all get bona fide awards pushes as we close out the year.
Additional reporting by Gerrad Hall.