Thor Ragnarok just got its first glorious trailer and it's packed with teases for the
upcoming third Thor movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and in this video, I'm breaking down the new
Thor Ragnarok trailer for easter eggs and other hidden details you might have missed.
So, of course, there's speculation and potential spoilers ahead for Thor Ragnarok.
Let's start with that awesome shot of Thor throwing his hammer at Hela.
Notice how this sequence is happening on Earth.
And just there next to Thor in the alley, it looks like Loki.
This links back to the mid-credits scene of the Doctor Strange movie where Thor visits
Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum and explains that he needs to bring Loki to New York to
look for their father Odin who's gone missing.
Now, back to this trailer, Hela, of course, destroys Thor's hammer, crushing it into small
pieces.
It's interesting that Thor's hammer gets destroyed because we're still waiting to find out where
the final Infinity Stone, the Soul stone, is hidden, and one theory is that it could
be hidden inside Thor's hammer.
Is it possible Hela did this to get to the missing stone?
An alternate Soul stone theory states that it's contained in Heimdall's armour and, if
you notice in this scene from the trailer, he's not wearing his usual armour, so I also
wonder whether this has anything to do with the Soul stone?
OK, back to Hela, and this awesome shot of her with her full headgear looks stunningly
like it's taken right from the comic books.
And her antler-like gear also appears in another shot later where she's battling the war goddesses
known as the Valkyrior who are mounted on their winged horses in what could be a flashback
scene.
Notice the blue cape which Valkyrie often has in the comics and, as the Valkyrior attack
Hela, the Goddess of Death launches her sword and the next shot is of Valkyrie, falling
together with other defeated warriors in the distance.
Valkyrie's defeat presumably is the reason why we find her working for the Grandmaster
later in the trailer rather than living on Asgard.
By the way, like the Collector from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Grandmaster is one of the
Elders of the Universe, and they both have a similar look including markings on their
lip and chin.
And given it's the game-loving Grandmaster who's presiding over the gladiator battles
in the movie, it looks like he's taking on a similar role in this story to the Red King,
who ruled the planet Sakaar in the Planet Hulk storyline in the comics, which I'll talk
more about shortly.
Curiously, in the comics, at one time, the Grandmaster had the Mind Gem.
Now, in the MCU, that's actually possessed by Vision.
So, it's also possible that, in the movie, the Grandmaster might be the one with the
final Infinity Stone, aka the Soul Stone.
Back on Asgard, we see a sweeping view of the city complete with the Rainbow bridge,
aka the Bifrost, which allows travel between the Nine Realms.
And Hela is there in front of an army of Asgardian Warriors, without her head-dress, and pulls
out her sword uttering the words "Asgard is dead" just before a huge explosion sweeps
through the city, which, interestingly, passes over a very particular tree.
This tree looks like a representation of the symbolic Yggdrasil tree, which has already
appeared in two previous Marvel movies.
The first time it appeared was in the first Captain America movie where it was carved
into the wall where Red Skull discovered the Tesseract.
Its second appearance was when Thor sketched the tree as a way to explain the Nine Realms
to Jane Foster.
The Yggdrasil tree in both the movies and the comics connects all the nine realms and
the destruction of the tree by Hela symbolises the extent of the devastation she's unleashed
on Asgard.
By the way, the word "Ragnarok" means the series of events in Norse mythology that foretell
"the Doom of the Gods".
So now we've introduced the main villain Hela, let's step back to the beginning of the trailer
where Thor is being dropped into a huge fiery cavern.
As Thor dangles there, notice these faces lighting up with one of them also opening
its mouth slightly.
These could be either fire demons, which in the comics originate from the realm of Muspelheim,
where the enormous and hugely powerful demon Surtur rules.
Alternately, the faces could be souls of the dead in Hela's domain Hel.
The faces appear to be kind of stacked in mounds, one on top of the other, which seems
to indicate these could be tormented souls that Hela has acquired.
However, footage shown at San Diego Comic Con revealed a scene of the Hulk getting ready
to fight Surtur, meaning the Hulk might be about to burst in and save Thor here.
Either way, I can't wait to find out.
The other location we get a really good look at is the planet Sakaar.
If you look up at the sky, you can see all these portals which are basically wormholes
that connect to various parts of the universe which is how Thor got there.
And the portals are also a way for the rest of the universe to dump their trash on Sakaar.
In the comics, Sakaar is the location where the Planet Hulk storyline takes place and
it's inhabited by all kinds of dodgy characters which we get to see in the trailer.
So, we know that some elements of Planet Hulk are being used in the movie such as Hulk having
to fight as a gladiator on Sakaar.
In the comics, he ends up there after he's sent into space for being too dangerous; however,
quite why and how he ended up there in the MCU isn't clear just yet.
In Ragnarok, we're going to see Thor have to fight without his mighty hammer.
And last time Thor had to face Hulk without his hammer in the first Avengers movie, things
didn't exactly go brilliantly for Thor!
Not only has he been painted here, but he's also had his hair cut short for the arena.
This short-haired look tips its hat to The Unworthy Thor comics where the God of Thunder
also deals with the consequences of losing the ability to wield his hammer.
But at least Thor has got himself a cool-looking new helmet.
And the last time we saw him with a helmet was in the first Thor movie.
Thor's replacement weapon which is a kind of club could be a nod to the Golden Mace
weapon wielded by Hercules in the comics.
I thought the Hulk's gladiator look was just fantastic including much of his Planet Hulk
look from the comics.
There's also a great nod to "The Incredible Hulk" comic book, TV and movie titles when
he's introduced as the "incredible" just before he Hulk smashes his way into the arena.
That line that Thor says about Hulk being a friend from work was just brilliant too,
and reminded me that even when the two have worked together, for example during the battle
of New York in the Avengers movie, that didn't stop the Hulk giving Thor one of his trademark
side-punches!
But the tone of this scene also made me think of those hilarious Thor mockumentaries where
Thor's friend Darryl tells the Asgardian god that he should get a job, to which Thor replies
that he already has a one, saving the planet.
In fact, although Thor Ragnarok isn't a full-on comedy, director Taika Waititi has said he
wanted to make use of Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo's comedic chops in what becomes
a kind of road movie.
And in the gladiator arena, we see the Grandmaster's booth which includes some very interesting
characters, including what could be a Celestial, plus Loki is there too.
Celestials have already shown up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Eson The Searcher was a celestial who destroyed a planet with the Power Stone, and the mining
colony Knowhere was, as Gamora explained in that movie, "the severed head of an ancient
celestial being".
Ragnarok director Taika Waititi also teased another Celestial helmet on his Instagram
and there's been speculation this helmet belongs to the Celestial Ziran the Tester.
Ziran the Tester is part of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline in the comics, so Thor Ragnarok
may be about to give the Celestials a more important role in the MCU going forward.
By the way, it looks like there's a cameo here also by actress Rachel House who was
in director Taika Waititi's previous movie, Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
You might also have heard her recently as the voice of Gramma Tala in Disney's Moana.
And Taika Waititi also snuck in a Hunt for the Wilderpeople easter egg via this graffiti
behind Thor which reads Skux Life.
"Skux Life" is a slang phrase protagonist Ricky Baker uses to talk about being gangsta
and the phrase has a similar meaning to "Thug Life".
And director Waititi has also talked about how influential the work of the legendary
comic book artist and writer Jack Kirby has been on the look of Ragnarok, and we can see
various visual homages to Kirby in the trailer.
For example, the wall behind the Grandmaster is literally taken straight from the design
on a power core in "The Sentry Sinister" Fantastic Four comic.
The trailer also introduces us to this guy: Skurge, aka the Executioner, who's played
by Karl Urban, and the scene looks like it's been taken straight from Thor issue 362 in
which Skurge makes a noble sacrifice by defending the bridge out of Hel, protecting Thor and
a group who are trying to get out of there.
Thor's vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron had Heimdall accusing Thor, saying to him, "They
see you leading us to Hel".
So could Thor: Ragnarok involve Thor having to get the Asgardians out of Hel and might
Skurge sacrifice himself in a similar way to the comics?
Now, it's unclear whether this scene involving Loki has anything to do with the bridge out
of Hel that Skurge is defending.
Behind Loki is a mass of people who look to be trying to break through, while Loki does
a cool-looking double-dagger flip.
By the way, in the comics, Goddess of Death, Hela, is actually Loki's daughter, so it'll
be interesting to see if there's any relation between them in the movie.
And this is an interesting scene with a spacecraft positioning itself to shoot through that portal,
which is curiously shaped and coloured like an eye.
Perhaps it's Thor, Hulk and Valkyrie leaving Sakaar.
But what is intriguing is that the colours of the craft are the same as the colours of
Captain Marvel's costume, and, of course, one of Captain Marvel's skills is her expertise
as a pilot.
It might not be Marvel herself, but could this be an awesome little tease for her movie?
Music-wise, the trailer features the awesome Led Zeppelin track "Immigrant Song", the lyrics
for which, appropriately enough, include the words "hammer of the gods" and references
to Norse mythology.
So, guys, what did you think of the Thor: Ragnarok trailer?
Were there any other details you spotted?
And do you think we'll get an infinity stone reveal in the movie?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!