The Surprising Characters That Marvel Fans Love Seeing In Thor: Love And Thunder's Teaser

The first teaser trailer for the fourth installment of Marvel's "Thor" franchise has officially dropped, and enthusiastic fans have a lot of feelings about the revealing glimpse into director Taika Waititi's upcoming "Thor: Love and Thunder." While the film's official synopsis offered some insight into its focus (Thor's attempt at a peaceful journey of self-discovery is interrupted by the evil plans of Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher), the trailer reveals a great deal more about what audiences can expect from the sequel, including the return of some characters and the introduction of a few new ones as well. 

Two of these characters have the franchise's fandom buzzing. While it's no secret that the superhero comics and the mega movies they inspired give readers and audiences a fairly loose interpretation of the Norse mythology laid out in historians' main source of the ancient belief system (Snorri Sturluson's Prose and Poetic Eddas), there's many a character and fundamental storyline that appears in both. For instance, Thor's tense and antagonistic relationship with the trickster god Loki, his reliance on his hammer Mjöllnir, and his commitment to protect humanity are all important elements of both the comics and their semi-source material (via Norse Mythology).

As the teaser reveals, in "Thor: Love and Thunder," Chris Hemsworth's long-haired hero will be joined by two more characters that appear in both the comics and the mythology. 

Both The Prose and Poetic Eddas mention Thor's trusty longship/chariot pullers, two enchanted goats named Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. In the Prose Edda, as the Berloga Workshop explains, we learn that Thor is able to cook and subsist off the meat of his goats, then bring them back to life with the help of Mjöllnir, provided none of the bones are broken. When a farmer's son ignores Thor's instructions and breaks one of the bones, the goat is resurrected with an injury, prompting the temperamental god to take on the farmer's two children as his servants. Though the goats are mentioned elsewhere, their names appear only in the story of the inattentive boy.

In the comics, the goats' names are translated as Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, and first appear in 1976's Thor Annual #5 (via Marvel Fandom). As far as living accessories or magical sidekicks go, it's hard to argue with two giant, fearsome, regenerating flying goats, and fans are excited to finally see the pair make an appearance.

In a Reddit post that's already received over 1,000 upvotes on a teaser discussion subreddit, user u/yarkcir wrote, "We finally get Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder!" Many fans were eager to discuss the various artists behind the Thor (and other) Marvel comics, as well as just how the film will portray antagonist Gorr the God Butcher. It's clear that many are looking forward to seeing two of the comic series' less-talked about, but no less interesting, characters.