Idris Elba wants to come back to the MCU – here's how it could happen
Idris Elba has now infiltrated two of the most successful movie franchises to date. He starred in the recent Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs & Shaw as Brixton and has long been played the fan-favourite Marvel god Heimdall in the Thor movies, as well as the Avengers movies.
Spoilers and that, but unfortunately for Elba, both of these characters have now met their maker.
But if Marvel has taught us anything, it's that being dead doesn't really mean you're gone. And if Elba has his way, Heimdall will return.
He recently revealed he would "of course" want to return to the MCU. "Listen, Heimdall is essentially part of the god family. So you know, he essentially could be alive. I'm just saying! I'm just putting it out there."
"The Heimdall character goes way back into, you know, the Thor mythology. And I'm sure there will be an interesting way to bring that alive. Of course I would. Yes," he added.
Heimdall wasn't one of the lucky Marvel characters to be snapped and return, he was stabbed through the heart by Thanos, which tends to result in death.
However, between the comic books and the upcoming Loki Disney+ Marvel show, the world is rife with possibilities of how to bring Heimdall back.
Loki on TV
Already set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the possibility of a 2012 Heimdall returning. Avengers: Endgame saw to that when Loki escaped capture with the Space Stone.
There is every possibility that 2012 Loki, armed with the Space Stone, goes back to Asgard and somehow recruits Heimdall into whatever shenanigans the trickster god has planned. Though this would mean Elba's return as Heimdall would be in the Disney+ series, it doesn't preclude him from returning in future movies.
If, as Endgame writer Stephen McFeely said, the time travelling resulted in two Captain Americas in the same timeline, there may very well be two Heimdalls in the same timeline, which becomes one when Heimdall is killed in Infinity War in 2018.
The Space Stone is housed inside the Tesseract, and with that Loki (and Heimdall) could travel through universes. Hello Multiverse! Hello Heimdall, who literally builds bridges between realities!
New Orleans
Another less likely but not impossible way for Heimdall to return has its basis in the comics; first as a man named Donald Velez, and then as a man named Ezra.
Both comics plots bear striking similarities to the plot of Thor: Ragnarok. In 1997's 'Journey Into Mystery' number 506, Odin casts the Asgardians down to Earth disguised as mortals to protect them from a false Ragnarok, and Heimdall becomes Donald Velez.
But then there's the real Ragnarok, brought to Asgard by Loki. He destroys the Bifrost and kills Heimdall.
Or so we thought.
After Thor finally ends the cycle of Ragnarok, Heimdall is reborn on Earth in the body of a mortal being named Ezra, a New Orleans native. Thor finds him there and returns him to Asgardian form.
So, with plenty of these details already worked into Thor: Ragnarok, where might they fit in the MCU? Thor: Love and Thunder, of course.
In comic books The Mighty Thor Volumes 1 and 2, Heimdall is protecting Asgard's new ruler, the All-Mother. In the movie, however, this new ruler will likely be Valkyrie, since Thor passed his crown to her at the end of Endgame.
But Odin, presumed dead, returns with a familiar face: Jane Foster, aka Mighty Thor. Which brings us to Thor: Love and Thunder.
If, and this is a big if, Thor is off with the Guardians of the Galaxy (as he was at the end of Endgame), he might find Heimdall, aka Ezra, wandering around New Orleans. And thus Elba would return to the big screen as Heimdall.
So, we've figured it out folks! Now to let Kevin Feige know...
Thor: Love and Thunder is out in cinemas on November 5, 2021.
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