Tessa Thompson first joined the MCU as Valkyrie in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, and later reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder, and The Marvels.
While the actress isn't among those confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, there's plenty more for Marvel Studios to do with the King of Asgard. Rumour has it the Captain Marvel sequel was going to explore Valkyrie's romantic history with Carol Danvers, only for the Disney-owned studio to ultimately decide against it (based on comments from filmmaker Nia DaCosta, the movie was in a constant state of flux).
That would have been a fun dynamic to continue exploring heading into the next Avengers movies—Brie Larson also hasn't been announced as starring in Doomsday as we write this—and with Thor getting serious, the opportunity is there to do the same with Valkyrie.
Talking to The Playlist, Thompson was asked about recently being spotted in the UK and whether she filmed any scenes for Avengers: Doomsday. "Oh, [I’m] not able to confirm anything," the actress quickly replied, neither confirming nor denying her MCU future. Intriguing, right?
The His & Hers star did, however, express a desire to return to the MCU. "Yeah, definitely. And I think this is the coolest thing about hanging out inside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: all the incredible people that you get to play with, both the incredible craftspeople that create these worlds, all the amazing directors that they invite into these spaces, and all of the incredible talent."
"And also, I think there are so many tonal spaces you can go to inside of a Marvel movie," Thompson added. "You can explore drama and comedy, and there’s so much to do," she continued. "And I just love the character so much that I would always be interested. For sure."
In Netflix's His & Hers, Thompson stars alongside another MCU actor: Daredevil: Born Again and Spider-Man: Brand New Day star Jon Bernthal. However, as much as fans might like to imagine them sitting around discussing a possible between Valkyrie and The Punisher, it never really came up.
"You know what’s so funny is we never ever did that," she shared. "But it wasn’t something we ever really spoke about, except towards the end of shooting. You know, we keep in touch, and we’re friends,” she said. “I know he is preparing to come back and do 'Punisher.' So then we talked about it in that context, but more as just actors that work in that world."
Thompson concluded, "But we never talked about our characters in relation to each other. I’m curious how they get along. We probably should have."
If Valkyrie does appear in Avengers: Doomsday, then we'd bet on it being in a relatively minor role. The Russos already have more than enough characters to focus on, and it seems the bigger priority will be reestablishing Thor's status quo after he became too much of a comedic figure in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released on December 18, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive on December 17, 2027.