1. Gorr and the Necrosword

Gorr (Christian Bale), villain of Thor: Love And Thunder, has a comic-book backstory that is skimmed over in the film. That does not matter because all one needs to know is that he resides on a planet that worships a god who abandons his worshippers at the worst time.

A vengeance-seeking Gorr finds the Necrosword, a weapon made of the same shape-shifting shadow material that formed the helmet worn by Thor's sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

The stage is set for a showdown.

On the side of the protectors is Thor (Chris Hemsworth), armed with the axe Stormbreaker, and Jane Foster's Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman), carrying the hammer Mjolnir. Against them is Gorr The God Butcher, bent on killing all gods - including Thor - with his dark weapon.

2. Thor since Avengers: Endgame

In the 2019 movie, Thor was shown to be a drunk couch potato living in New Asgard, the city in Norway where his people resettled after the events of Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

At the end of Endgame, after helping to destroy Thanos, he is shown to have found a new purpose as part of the Guardians Of The Galaxy crew. The new movie picks up from there and shows how, after gallivanting across space on adventures with the Guardians - and regaining his god bod - he has to protect New Asgard once again.

3. Foster is Mighty Thor

Portman's Foster is back, but Thor's ex-girlfriend seen in Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) is a superhero now? And she has Thor's hammer, Mjolnir?

Those who do not follow Marvel news will have been puzzled by movie images and trailers showing Portman wielding Mjolnir, the weapon destroyed by his sister Hela, Goddess Of Death in Thor: Ragnarok.

The new movie explains it all - how Foster got her powers, why she has the fully restored Mjolnir and why she and Thor had to break up.

4. No multiverse, just magic and gods

Just know that the multiverse concept, driven home in recent Marvel films Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022) is absent here, mainly because it is absent from the comic-book source material.

The idea of gods as vulnerable beings who have all the worst traits of humans, and that immortals from everywhere are part of a confederation, is also taken from the comics - in the trailer, you can see ancient Greek god Zeus, played by Russell Crowe, lording it over an assembly of gods.