Moon Knight's Afterlife Has Huge Implications For Thor: Love & Thunder
Moon Knight revealed the truth about gods and the afterlife in the MCU - and as such it has major implications for Thor: Love & Thunder's Valkyrie.
This article contains spoilers for Moon Knight episode 5.
Moon Knight's afterlife has enormous implications for Thor: Love & Thunder. At first glance, the Moon Knight Disney+ TV series appears unusually disconnected from the rest of the MCU. For all that's the case, though, it nonetheless has significant implications for the rest of the shared universe, simply because of its treatment of the Egyptian gods pantheon and even the afterlife. Moon Knight treats the gods as real, and even confirms there are multiple afterlifes based on different belief systems, with Taweret explicitly referencing the Ancestral Plane from Black Panther.
Moon Knight shows just how far the MCU has evolved. When Marvel introduced the Norse gods back in 2011, the studio was unsure whether viewers would be willing to accept magic and the supernatural as part of what was considered a science-based superhero universe; that's why Thor featured a throwaway line of dialogue in which he claimed to come from a place where science and magic were one and the same thing. Over a decade later, there's no such reluctance to introduce new pantheons. Thor: Love & Thunder will take this concept even further, introducing Gorr the God-Butcher as its villain, a character who travels the cosmos slaying gods.
Moon Knight's treatment of the afterlife is more important than many viewers realize, however. Taweret implies all the various afterlifes really exist for those who believe in them, which means the Norse afterlife of Valhalla exists as well. This has major implications for Tessa Thompson's Asgardian character, the current ruler of the Asgardians, for she is a Valkyrie. In Norse mythology, the Valkyrie were responsible for guiding the souls of the deceased down one of two paths. The souls of the worthy are guided to Gods' Hall in Valhalla. It's likely the MCU's Valkyrie lost these particular abilities when she abandoned the Asgardians, but she could potentially regain them now that she has returned to her own people.
If Valhalla is real, then the gods of Asgard slain by Hela in Thor: Ragnarok are not gone for good; they have simply traveled to Valhalla, where they await their return at the beginning of a new Ragnarok cycle. Ironically, it's likely even Loki earned Valhalla in the end, for Loki redeemed himself by fighting against Hela's forces and earned a hero's death when he made a last desperate, unsuccessful attempt to kill Thanos. There's no reason the gods of Asgard could not return.
This raises an interesting opportunity for Marvel to effectively relaunch the Thor franchise. The remaining Asgardians have settled at Tønsberg, Norway, where they have established New Asgard; while this is currently only a small community, it's entirely possible the rest of the gods will return and the new Realm Eternal will be established on Earth. This actually happened in the comics, when Thor Odinson successfully brought back the gods who had died in the last Ragnarok. Marvel could use this as a chance to further reinvent both Asgard and the gods, introducing a whole new incarnation and even recasting the MCU's Asgardian gods themselves. While this may not happen in Thor: Love & Thunder, it could be done at any time - all thanks to Moon Knight's treatment of the afterlife.
New episodes of Moon Knight release every Wednesday on Disney+.