Thor: Love and Thunder: Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi celebrate the start of filming in Australia

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Filming started with a Welcome to Country ceremony

Thor: Ragnarok
(Image credit: Marvel)

Thor: Love and Thunder celebrated the start of filming with a Welcome to Country ceremony, with director Taika Waititi and actor Chris Hemsworth marking the occasion on social media.

On Instagram, Hemsworth shared images of the ceremony, along with the caption: "A beautiful start to our shoot today with a Welcome to Country ceremony from the Gamay dancers of the Gadigal and Bidiagal Nation and performance and karakia by Maori dancers from Te Aranganui."

The caption went on to talk about January 26th, which is Australia Day: "Indigenous Australians may be just as proud of this country, but many see January 26th as a date signifying the beginning of dispossession, disease epidemics, frontier violence, destruction of culture, exploitation, abuse, separation of families and subjection to policies of extreme social control. 

"Let’s begin the healing and stand together in unity and support with our First Nations people with solidarity and compassion. Let’s find a date where all Australians can celebrate this beautiful country together." (H/T Collider)

Director Waititi shared a similar Tweet: "Started Love & Thunder with Welcome to Country ceremony from Gamay dancers of Gadigal & Bidiagal Nation and karakia from Te Aranganui. I encourage all film makers to engage with 1st nations peoples whenever shooting your films. It's worth it and it's the right thing to do."

Thor: Love and Thunder is the follow-up to Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, and it’s shaping up to have a massive cast of familiar faces. Along with Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster will be back, as well as Jamie Alexander’s Sif – and Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord. Vin Diesel has also hinted at more Guardians appearing, and Christian Bale is reportedly playing the villainous Gorr the God Butcher.

The thorquel lands February 18 2022. In the meantime, check out everything we know about Marvel Phase 4.

Molly Edwards
Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.