Captain America Civil War was the most anticipated superhero movie of 2016 for the Marvel fans. It opened to a massive opening, the global box office collections crossed a Billion dollar mark. Due to loss of property and human life as a result of Avengers actions, General Ross pointed out the need for maintaining oversight through Sokovia Accords to be ratified by 117 nations, which will appoint a special UN Panel to keep checks and balances on Avengers missions. This created deep fissures among Tony Stark and Captain America resulting into a division of Avengers into two camps: Team Iron Man and Team Cap.
But there were notable absentees in the Civil War, and the biggest one was Thor: He just left after Avengers: Age of Ultron and did’nt return to Earth even when Avengers were split into two groups. He was dealing with his shit at Asgard. Just kidding guys. But now we do have a definitive answer as to why he was not there.
Apparently, he was roaming around the realm in search of Thanos with little or no success. Screen Rant had an interview with producer Brad Winderbaum and asked him about the whereabouts of Thor during the Civil war. He said that he decided to find “puppet master” who has been causing Infinity Stones to appear at the first place aka the Mad Titan. This is what he had to say:
“The journey he’s been on at the beginning of this movie, it’s not like five minutes after Ultron ends we start this movie: it’s a couple years later. And as we know, at the end of Ultron he’s started this quest to find the puppet master, and the Infinity Stones, and all that. What he realized really fast, I don’t think I’m giving too much away because it’s right at the top of the film, but basically that one quest, that universe-ending peril that he was trying to figure out dovetailed or branched off into any number of universe ending-perils that he’s been adventuring on for the two years leading up to the beginning of this film.”
According to Team Thor, he drew a picture of a “purple man” and he was searching for him during the events of the Civil war.
Brad Winderbaum on being asked if this journey will have an impact on Thor when he comes back during Avengers Infinity War, he added:
“We find him as a lone gunslinger, you know, a guy who’s been adventuring around the cosmos for two years right at the top of our movie. He’s a more savvy version of the character. In Dark World he has trouble navigating that Dark Elf spaceship…but that’s the Thor of the past.”
He will next be seen in Thor: Ragnarok which 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. Thor will confront an empowered Loki who has gained absolute control of Asgard while Thor was busy fighting Ultron and forces of Hela who command legions of the dead will lay Asgard to waste. He must defeat them 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.”
Marvel Studios is now ramping up its marketing campaign for Thor 3 and released a new TV spot which has mighty Thor putting together a team of Asgardian warriors against Cate Blanchett’s Hela to save the Kingdom of Asgard. This new teaser was uploaded on Youtube by Tales Productions where we see Thor and Bruce Banner interacting, Thor and Valkyrie preparing for war, Jeff Goldblum Grandmaster’s new shots and action scene featuring Hela. A new behind-the-scenes footage came out which sheds light on the character of Hela. Mark Ruffalo said in an audio “Cate Blanchett’s character is the worst of the worst, totally evil.” 
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 Asgard will be devastated in a huge battle. In comics, once she possessed Twilight sword 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.
Recently, a picture was released which pointed to the possibility of Dr. Strange showing up in the movie. It was confirmed in the post-credits scene of Doctor Strange that Dr. Strange will help Thor in Ragnarok. It seems Thor will travel to Sanctum Santorum in Greenwich Village, New York to learn more about Infinity stones. It is also possible that he needs to know how to travel through realms something which Dr. Strange has mastered through magic and mystical arts. Further, in the Japanese trailer of Thor: Ragnarok, we see Dr. Strange and he is issuing a dire warning to Thor. He said: “Thor, I sense a great change in your future. Destiny has dire plans for you, my friend, to which Thor responds, I have dire plans for destiny.”
The movie will be more action packed and it will also be the shortest ever Marvel movie. In continuing with the traditions of Thor movies, Kenneth Branagh’s Thor was 114 minutes, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World was 112 minutes long but Thor: Ragnarok will just have 100 minutes runtime. Taika Waititi said to Collider:
“The cut right now, I reckon it’s about 100 minutes. It’s not gonna be a very, very long film. I think that stories are better when you leave them wanting more, and this film moves at a clip, it’s got stuff happening all the time. I think people are still gonna feel exhausted by the end; they’ve been on this big journey and stuff, so I don’t think we need the film to be three hours”.
From the look and feel of it, it seems there are all the ingredients present in the movie to become a huge blockbuster. The movie will hit theatres on November 3, 2017.
Don’t Miss: Marvel Cinematic Universe: The MASSIVE Changes Made For Phase 3 And 4
