WARNING: This contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The MCU has an old problem of limiting great actresses to a love interest role only, but Thor: Love and Thunder. With Avengers 5 still not on the horizon, the MCU is back focusing on solo films that can spend time developing the characters without having to worry about setting up a major, urgent threat. Unlike the Avengers films, solo entries like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder often feature a large cast of ing characters centered around the main hero, and not all of them end up receiving the same attention from the script.
MCU’s solo films, especially the earlier ones, share some similarities in of structure. Iron Man and Doctor Strange, for example, despite being made eight years apart, tell a rather similar origin story about flawed individuals finding redemption for themselves by becoming superheroes. Another constant theme in most of the MCU’s solo films like Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger is the love interest that is somehow connected to the heroes’ origins and usually acts as their moral com. That alone is far from being a problem as love stories are as important to comic books as fighting villains is, but the MCU would often waste great talent by restricting characters to the love interest role alone.
That was the case for Natalie Portman’s Jane in Thor and Thor: The Dark World, Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter in the wielder of Mjolnir in the MCU.
The Marvel universe in the comic books offered plenty of options as to where the MCU could take character characters like Peggy Carter and Jane Foster, but it took until Phase 4 for the franchise to finally make use of it. Not only are storylines such as Captain Carter and Mighty Thor adding new characters and lore to the MCU, but they are also making sure that great actresses are still interested in reprising their roles. Natalie Portman, for example, had left the MCU after Thor: The Dark Work but decided to come back for Thor: Love and Thunder. Similarly, it was initially reported that Rachel McAdams was not going to return for Doctor Strange 2, but the actress eventually starred in the film as Christine Palmer from both MCU's Earth-616 and the Earth-838 timeline.
The MCU has seen great actresses being part of the franchise from the start, but some of those are only now being given more to do than just playing the love interest. ing characters and relationships are important to any solo superhero story, but the Marvel universe is big enough for each of those characters to have their time in the spotlight. Fortunately, with Doctor Strange 2 and Thor: Love and Thunder leading the way, it seems that will be the case for Phase 4 and beyond.
