After her iconic run on Game of Thrones, Lena Headey has stayed busy across television and film. Still, one of her more intriguing projects never actually made it to the screen. She was quietly cast in a mystery role for 2022’s mixed-reviewed Marvel movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, only for her scenes to be cut before the final version was released. Now, Headey is finally opening up about what that role involved, and it sounds like a much stranger addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe than I had expected. Honestly, I so wish we could have seen this.
Speaking with ScreenRant, Headey shared that her role placed her in a bizarre coven, a trio of witches she described as equally chaotic and comedic. The concept, which apparently was a completely original creation from director Taika Waititi, would have been pretty out there. As she described it:
I wasn’t in it, but I worked on it. There were three of us. We were [a] coven of witches. I think it was Taika’s invention, and they were kind of Thor’s guide in the underworld, but they were very, very funny and kind of insane.
The idea of three witches with this sort of “insanity” definitely feels like it would have fit right into Taika Waititi’s approach to the Thor franchise, especially after the tonal shift introduced in Thor: Ragnarok and continued, maybe to its detriment, in Love & Thunder. The idea of a sort of comedic coven guiding the God of Thunder through the underworld sounds like exactly the kind of offbeat detour that film leaned into. Headey continued:
Article continues belowI think there was this whole story of like, 'They got fired,' when actually it was just like, 'What are they doing here?' But I think the intention was to find this land for them to have their own adventures. It was myself, Angus Sampson, and Da'Vine Joy [Randolph], so it was quite a trio of madness.
It sounds like the trio of witches could have delivered something memorable, even within a film packed with larger-than-life characters. Though it's worth noting that a lot of MCU fans felt that Love & Thunder pushed a little too far into Taika Waititi’s comedic voice, undercutting the movie’s more dramatic undertones and storyline. So this particular group of characters being left on the cutting-room floor may have been for the best.
This doesn't sound like a single cameo being trimmed for time, either, but a full concept that may not have quite fit the final version of the movie. That happens more often than people realize, especially in large-scale productions and new superhero movies where tone and pacing are constantly being adjusted during editing. Why was this storyline cut? It's hard to tell, but given the over-the-top nature of the rest of the movie, it may be a blessing in disguise. Though I won't lie, I wish we could have seen these witches on the big screen.
Released in June 2022, Thor: Love and Thunder marked Taika Waititi’s return to the MCU after Thor: Ragnarok and went on to earn more than $760 million worldwide, landing mixed reactions from critics but a stronger response from audiences.
Even without her scenes making the final cut in Thor, Headey hasn’t slowed down post-Game of Thrones. While her recent Western series The Abandons didn’t move forward, she’s already onto her next project, the thriller Ballistic, where she plays a grieving mother pulled into a deeper mystery surrounding her son’s death.
Both of Taika Waititi’s Thor films, sans Lena Headey, are available to stream with a Disney+ subscription. But, if you want to catch the former Game of Thrones star in her latest project, you're in luck because Ballistic hits the 2026 movie calendar and theaters on Friday, April 17, 2026.
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