Thor Ragnarok is the upcoming Marvel movie which will directly lead into the Avengers Infinity War. It is inspired by Jack Kirby’s Ragnarok comic wherein Asgard is burned to the ground and rebuilt from the ashes. The God of Thunder must defeat forces of Hela to pave the way for the rebirth of Asgardian society. One fan aptly described the movie as “The way Winter Soldier was for Captain America, Ragnarok is for Thor.”
The main cast includes Chris Hemsworth (Thor, God of Thunder), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Anthony Hopkins (Odin) and Idris Elba (Heimdall) who are set to reprise their roles. The ensemble cast includes big names such as two-time Oscar award winner Cate Blanchett (Queen Elizabeth, Blue Jasmine, Carol etc) as the powerful new villain Hela (leader of Doomeo i.e Asgardian Hell); Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, Jurassic Park) as the eccentric grandmaster who is an elder of the universe, he is sometimes called as “Inter-galactic Cosmic Pleasure-seeker”, he possessed the mind-gem until Thanos took it away from him; Tessa Thomson (Creed, Selma) as the classic hero Valkyrie who may play Thor’s love interest; Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Star Trek trilogy) as Skurge who is a powerful warrior and Mark Ruffalo (Avengers, Foxcatcher, Spotlight) as Bruce Banner/ Hulk.
Recently, the international poster of Thor Ragnarok showed Hela towering over everyone as if she is this gigantic threat looming over Thor’s head, so much so that he needs a bad-ass team of warriors to take her on. It was a Japanese poster that used bright and dynamic color scheme which is in stark contrast with darker posters for the Marvel movies that we are used to seeing. The fact that mighty Thor needs an assembly of cosmic heroes including Valkyrie, Loki, Hulk etc. to take on Hela shows how powerful she really is.
It’s just a month left for the release of Thor Ragnarok and Marvel is leaving no stone unturned to fully cash in on the enormous buzz that movie has already generated. The studio has launched 31-day social media campaign titled “HelaWeen” to highlight villainous characteristics of Cate Blanchett’s character Hela. There is a brand new poster that provides a closer look into the character and shows her deer antlers/headdress thing. She is not the first female villain in a superhero movie but she may be the best till now.
As part of the “Helaween” initiative, the studio has released a video where Cate Blanchett shared her favorite memories from the sets when she was beating people up or throwing axes into someone’s gut. The director Taika Waititi revealed that Cate Blanchett’s character has shattered the idea of a typical villain. The actor Chris Hemsworth revealed how excited he was to see Cate Blanchett play the role of Hela. He said that she has “an insane, off-kilter attitude” which is also visible in a new scene where she says to Skurge (Karl Urban) that he looks like a smart boy.
Further, we know that Thor and Gladiator Hulk will battle it out in the arena, they would survive and would go on a “cosmic road-trip”. But their plans to save Asgard from Hela’s forces will take a massive beating and it will be devastated in a huge battle. In comics, once she possessed Twilight sword in the comics and threatened to destroy all nine realms. As a result, she was banished by King Odin.
In the official trailer of the movie released by Marvel, Cate Blanchett’s character Hela is seen holding Mjolnir. The details of the plot indicate that Thor will part with his hammer before being sent to Planet Sakaar. It will be interesting to see if Hela is worthy of the realm’s most powerful object or she is just ruler of the afterlife who is unworthy of greatness. A new behind-the-scenes audio clip came out in which Mark Ruffalo is saying “Cate Blanchett’s character is the worst of the worst, totally evil.”
Cate Blanchett recently discussed her reasons to take on the mantle of Hela in Thor Ragnarok. She is a versatile actress who is associated with successful ventures like Carol, Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button etc. She has been part of big-budget blockbusters like Lord of the Rings movies, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull etc. 
Everyone wondered as to why of all people Cate Blanchett would take a comic-book role. Well, she mentioned three reasons – 1. Taika Waititi (the director), 2. Goddess of Death, 3. There has never been a female Marvel villain.
Cate Blanchett spoke very highly of Taika and she is right as he is enormously talented and capable of extracting an Oscar-worthy performance from actors. She is playing Goddess of Death where she commands legions of the dead at Doomeo (Asgardian hell), it’s a bad-ass reason to be Hela. Finally, in the wake of the success of Wonder Woman, Cate wanted to play a strong female character who gets to wear a cool costume and do epic things. She told LA Times that the horns you see on Hela’s head are digitally created and she sort of imagined what it was like being a reindeer.
Thor Ragnarok will hit the theatres on November 3, 2017.
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