Over the weekend, a new Thor: Love and Thunder poster found its way online. Clearly made up of an assortment of promo art thrown together for the posters you often find for sale in your local Target, it was far from a masterpiece, but it did offer a new look at several major characters.
The poster included sneak peeks at the Mighty Thor and Valkyrie, not to mention the God of Thunder's new costume(s). It wasn't exactly a traditional theatrical poster - though Spider-Man: No Way Home has proved that they're not always what they're cracked up to be - but fans were still excited by the reveals. Unfortunately, the hype was dampened somewhat by a Tweet shared by director Taika Waititi:
Well, there's another twist in the tale today. The Direct reached out to merchandise supplier Pyramid International and confirmed that this Thor: Love and Thunder poster "is an officially licensed product from Marvel." The site adds that, according to Pyramid, "the poster was mistakenly distributed to a retailer too early and will be available for purchase in 2022." In other words, it's real.
It's possible Waititi hasn't given the extremely busy poster his approval or that he was trying to make sure fans are still surprised when the official first look at the movie lands. Either way, it would have probably been better to say nothing at all, as this feels a lot like Lucasfilm's claims that Solo: A Star Wars Story promo art was fake...only for it to be in every store on the planet months later!
Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theaters on July 8, 2022.