20 facts you might not know about 'Thor: Ragnarok'

Alan Taylor, who directed Thor: The Dark World, did not want to return for Ragnarok, as he did not like the Marvel Cinematic Universe experience. A few directors were considered for the role, including names like Ruben Fleischer, Rawson Marshall Thurber, and Rob Letterman. In the end, Taika Waititi got the job.

Though it apparently went against Marvel’s usual practices, Waititi decided to create a “sizzle reel” to show his vision for Ragnarok. He made it using clips from other films to establish his tone, including Big Trouble in Little China. Waititi also scored it to "Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, which ended up being used in the trailer and the film.

Though this is a Thor film, it involves as much of Hulk as any Marvel movie since Mark Ruffalo took over the role. A lot of the ideas from the movie came from the “Planet Hulk” storyline from the comics. Some even described the movie as “Planet Thor” in reference to the comic.

Goldblum’s character of the Grandmaster is in the comics, but he has blue skin. Waititi decided against this for the movie. For one, he didn’t want to distract from Goldblum’s performance and mannerisms. Secondly, Goldblum had played a blue-skinned character in Earth Girls Are Easy already. Also, evidently the Grandmaster is the brother of Benicio del Toro’s character the Collector.

In addition to directing, Waititi plays a character in the film, though you don’t actually see him. He plays Korg, the rock alien on Sakaar. In addition to doing the motion capture, Waititi did the voiceover. He says he based the voice on Polynesian bouncers he had come across in his native New Zealand.

When Thor returns to Asgard, he sees the performance of a play that claims to tell the story of what happened previously in the world of the Thor films, though from Loki’s perspective. It also has quite the cast, from the human perspective. New Zealand’s own Sam Neill plays the Odin actor, Chris Hemsworth’s brother Luke plays the Thor actor, while Matt Damon plays the Loki actor.

Ragnarok is on a cosmic scale, with a lot of travel through space and time. To try and bring some verisimilitude to that, Astronomer and physicist Adam Frank was hired to be a consultant on the film. He advised them on interstellar travel, wormholes, and the like.

Hemsworth wanted to shoot a film in his native Australia, and he got his wish with Ragnarok. The movie didn’t just shoot at Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland. They were using all nine soundstages at the studio during filming.

Big Trouble in Little China was cited several times as an inspiration for Ragnarok, but the buddy-movie aspect between Thor and Hulk had inspirations as well. Some movies mentioned include 48 Hrs. and Withnail and I. Also, while it isn’t a buddy movie, Waititi had the head of every department watch Flash Gordon before shooting began.

The Infinity Gauntlet became a huge part of the storyline of the MCU. However, before this idea had even been considered, the Infinity Gauntlet is seen in Thor. Now, that created a bit of conflict in terms of the storyline. Ragnarok was called upon to clarify that. In this movie, that Infinity Gauntlet is revealed to be a fake.

Waititi didn’t keep things rigged on set. According to him, about 80 percent of the dialogue in the movie was improvised or created by ad-libbing or building off lines in the script. That feels like an exaggeration, but Waititi does come from a background in heavily improvised comedy.

Doctor Strange had already been filmed when Waititi was getting to work on Ragnarok, but the sets were still standing. Before they were demolished, Waititi decided to shoot some scenes on those sets featuring Stephen Strange. Both Marvel and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson liked what Waititi had shot and thought it would be a good way to bring Strange into the MCU at large. Thus, some of what Waititi shot ended up in the credits scenes of Doctor Strange.

It was a real coup for Marvel to get a two-time Oscar winner in the cast for Ragnarok. Cate Blanchett showed up to play Hela, the villain of the film, and her family is the reason for that. She shared at 2017's Comic-Con in San Diego that she had been "happily dragged into" the role by her kids — big Marvel fans.

Sif was in the first two Thor movies, and the hope was that she would be in this one as well. However, Jaimie Alexander, the actress who plays her, was busy shooting Blindspotting. Because of this, she was written out of the film. It was explained as being away from Asgard at the time.

Thompson plays Valkyrie, another new character to the MCU. Valkyrie has fallen on hard times but has history as a great warrior. As such, Thompson took inspiration by another woman from action movie history who knew how to get things done. She turned to Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Not just the fact that this version of Sarah is in great physical shape and has learned a thing or two about fighting and weaponry, but she’s dealing with the emotional fallout and trauma of the events of Terminator.

In order to explain what Thor and Hulk were up to during the events of Captain America: Civil War, Waititi made a short called “Team Thor.” This mockumentary was designed to be comedic, but it also did fill in some gaps. Eventually Waititi made two more “Team Thor” shorts.

Originally, Thor and Loki were going to find Odin in New York City, something of a vagrant, before he died. However, Waititi decided this wasn’t the right tone for the character’s send off. He decided to reshoot that sequence of the movie, setting it in Norway and giving Odin a more dignified send off. Footage from the New York version appeared in one trailer for the film.

Nobody expects total accuracy from a Thor movie when it comes to Norse mythology, but it is interesting to note what they decided to tweak. Take for example Hela, who is based on the goddess of the underworld Hel. In Norse mythology, she is Loki’s daughter. In this film, though, she is Odin’s daughter, and sister to Thor and Loki.

Marvel movies make a ton of money. It’s not super surprising that Thor: Ragnarok made $854 million worldwide on an $180 million budget. However, it was also a big critical jump for the franchise. Ragnarok has a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Thor is at 77 percent and The Dark World is at 66 percent.

Iron Man only had three films of his own. The same for Captain America. Thor? He has four. Thor: Love and Thunder arrived in July 2022 and saw the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and also an appearance from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh, and Christian Bale plays a character named “Gorr the God Butcher.” Sign us up.