Tessa Thompson first joined the MCU in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, and later reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder, and The Marvels.
We don't know whether the King of Asgard will return in Avengers: Doomsday, but there's plenty more to do with the character. 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).
During a recent interview with Perri Nemiroff, Tessa Thompson addressed her MCU future and revealed that she hopes to share the screen with Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes.
"One of the things that is so cool about getting to play in the MCU is obviously all the incredible actors that you get to act alongside," she started. "Then also, depending on the tone of the film that you exist in, you get to find these new facets of the character."
"So, I feel like I've mostly existed in kind of a comedic space with Valkyrie, but I'm curious if I were in a film that felt less comedic, how she would show up in those particular spaces," Thompson continued. "I don't know what his character would bring out in me, necessarily, but I just really love Sebastian."
"We really want to make something together eventually. It might not be in the MCU, but I just think he's such a tremendous actor, and it would be so fun to get to play with him," the actress added.
Valkyrie: New Avenger? Count us in.
In the same interview, Thompson talked about joining the MCU with Thor: Ragnarok and hinted at having a very different experience on other movies she's appeared in for Marvel Studios.
"I felt really excited. Taika [Waititi] was an indie filmmaker that I really loved and respected, and really liked his films. We really approached making [my] first Thor with that kind of indie spirit. For me, obviously, the scale was different than making independent films, but the energy of making it felt very scrappy, I guess, in a way that was really refreshing."
"But that is not true of all of the films necessarily," she mused. "So, I think that's something that I kind of came into the MCU thinking, 'Oh, well, that's what the experience of making these films is like,' and that isn’t always the case."
Thompson also weighed in on what she called a "common misconception" that doing a Marvel movie is a "one for you and one for them" deal. The Hedda star noted, "Typically, I think something like Marvel gets bracketed in this space of 'one for them,' and I didn't have that relationship to it when I joined it."
Many actors do seem to have the attitude that they need to star in a Marvel movie to then go off and do smaller, independent projects. While that wasn't how Thompson initially approached Valkyrie, we have seen that pay off for several MCU stars who make their money as a superhero and then pursue indie passion projects (Elizabeth Olsen is always a good example of that).
You can hear from Thompson in the player below.