Thor Ragnarok is the latest Marvel movie inspired from Jack Kirby’s Ragnarok comic wherein Asgard is burned to the ground and rebuilt from the ashes. The plot revolves around Thor’s struggle to stop goddess of death from destroying his home planet. The critics have heaped massive praise on Taika Waititi direction style and the fun elements introduced in the movie. The first reactions from the audience is very positive and everything from visual effects to storytelling is just impeccable. The movie is sitting on 96% on Rotten Tomatoes at present.
Apart from the usual cast including Chris Hemsworth (Thor, God of Thunder), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Anthony Hopkins (Odin) and Idris Elba (Heimdall), the movie also features two-time Oscar award winner Cate Blanchett as the powerful new villain Hela (leader of Doomeo i.e Asgardian Hell); Jeff Goldblum 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 as the classic hero Valkyrie who may play Thor’s love interest; Karl Urban as Skurge who is a powerful warrior and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ Hulk.
Here’s the official synopsis of Thor: Ragnarok:
“Imprisoned on the other side of the universe, the mighty Thor finds himself in a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against the Hulk, his former ally and fellow Avenger. Thor’s quest for survival leads him in a race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home world and the Asgardian civilization”.
Recently, the controversy broke regarding the fact that there are actually 2 Infinity Gauntlets that exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When Avengers: Age of Ultron came out, at the end of the movie, we saw the Infinity Gauntlet rising in a vault and Thanos appears and wields the Gauntlet from that vault saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself” referring to him taking the charge against the Avengers by collecting all the Infinity Stones.
How can there be an Infinity Gauntlet full of all the Infinity Stones studded in it in the first Thor movie within Odin’s Vault or another one in the possession of Thanos? Well, then people thought that Thanos was wielding the same Infinity Gauntlet in Age of Ultron and somehow, he might have reached Odin’s Vault and the Gauntlet has been missing ever since without anyone noticing it.
But, this theory is not feasible as that Gauntlet had all the stones studded in it and the Gauntlet Thanos took out had none. Also, when you notice properly, Thanos takes out the Gauntlet with his left hand and the one in Odin’s Vault was for a right hand.
Thor: Ragnarok successfully took the easter-egg and turned it on its head. Also, the president of Marvel, Kevin Feige has confirmed that yes there are indeed 2 different Infinity Gauntlets and the one which is at Asgard with the stones on it did not have the real Infinity Gems, they were just decorative stones to make the Gauntlet look full. So basically, the Infinity gauntlet that Thanos is the real one. So, all he has to do is collect the Infinity Gems, he already has “Black Order” i.e a group of ruthless mercenaries he picked up from Black Quadrant, assemble the gauntlet and use it for death and destruction. The only missing gem is “Soul Gem” which could be in the possession of Hela, and that’s why Thanos was interested to know what was going on in Asgard.
Anthony Russo, the co-director of the movie described it as a heist movie where Thanos will spend time strategizing in order to steal Infinity stones. In an interview with CNET, Russo Brothers spoke about how they were inspired by heist movies for Avengers Infinity War. Here’s what they said:
“With “Infinity War,” the biggest new element to the movie is Thanos and the fact that he’s entering the storytelling in a very bold, strong way, to the degree that he’s almost one of the leads. We’ve shaped an interesting narrative around him that in some ways leans heavily on a heist film in the fact that he’s going after the infinity stones in a much bolder, successful way than he has in the past. The entire movie has that energy of the bad guy being one step ahead of the heroes. We looked at a lot of movies that had that heist-style energy to them, and that brought some inspiration”.
It will be very interesting to see the most powerful cosmic creature stealing stuff to pursue his sinister ends. It will inject a totally different energy into the MCU than any other Marvel movie. Everyone will be rooting against the mad Titan while he keeps on accumulating more power through Infinity stones. He will have more hands-on and direct approach as he can’t trust anybody as they failed to meet his expectations.
He will bring big guns in the form of “Black Order” who are a team of ruthless mercenaries and their “Outriders” who are genetically engineered for a single purpose, find new worlds, invade and conquer it for Thanos. Although, the movie will come out in 2018, Black Order made its animation debut in Avengers Assemble episode “New Frontiers” in 2015.
At Disney’s D-23, the Black Order of Thanos (also known as Thanos Children) was revealed including Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian who was Black Dwarf. In a departure from comics, the members of Black Order were introduced as “children of Thanos”. On one hand, Thanos’ children Gamora and Nebula have rejected the overtures made by the father, the Black Order is firmly behind Thanos all the way.
They made their first appearance in 2013’s New Avengers #8 created by Hickman and Mike Deodato Jr. These cosmic creatures were brought together by Thanos to serve as leaders in an inter-galactic campaign for universal domination. They followed the orders of Thanos and destroyed many worlds for him until they found out that Infinity Stones are with “The Illuminati”, a secret society/group with members like Iron Man, Black Panther etc. created to keep the Infinity gems safe.
This group of ruthless aliens picked up by the Mad Titan from Black Quadrant will be sent to Earth to kill Thanos’ son Thane and then retrieve Infinity stones from Wakanda in a violent way.
Ebony Maw found Thane in Greenland, but then his latent Inhuman abilities are activated which made him unwilling slaughter an entire village with his “death touch”. Later, he fought Thanos with the power of Phoenix force.
Here’s the official synopsis of Avengers Infinity War:
“As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain”.
The mighty Thor realized that he is no match to his sister Hela (Goddess of Death) when she broke his supposedly unbreakable hammer. He adapted to new circumstances when he came to Planet Sakaar. He fought Hulk in the arena and almost got defeated (although it was more like a tie). He met Valkyrie and brought her on board for saving the people of Asgard from Hela’s wrath.
It was finally “Revengers” vs Hela and still, she was more powerful. He discovered that the source of his power was not Mjolnir, it was just a conduit. Finally, he and Loki decided to release Surtur who fulfilled the prophecy of Ragnarok as he is Asgardian doom. In the end, Thor and co. managed to escape and they are now on a “cosmic road-trip” to Earth. The planet Asgard as we know it has been destroyed by Hela after Thor’s plans of saving it went horribly wrong.
Thor is now King of Asgard, Hela is not really dead but incredibly wounded and people of Asgard are safe for now. There were two post-credit scenes and only the first one was consequential. Thor and Loki are discussing if they should visit Earth or not and suddenly they are interrupted by a massive ship. We could not see who was inside but Kevin Feige confirmed that it belongs to mad Titan himself. It is known as Sanctuary II.
It’s very likely that this scene will be the first scene of Avengers Infinity War. Why is Thanos interested in Thor’s ship? Well, at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, when Loki went inside treasure room to bring Surtur alive, he looked at Tesseract and must have grabbed it because he is God of mischief. The ship will probably be destroyed by Thanos and Loki will gladly hand over the Infinity stone to him. Moreover, the footage for the Infinity war movie shown at Disney’s D23 begins with Guardians of the Galaxy finding Thor floating in space unconscious without a space suit, Thor asks them about their identities. Let’s wait for the trailer to arrive.
This will be a big payoff for the fans. Can’t wait to see Infinity War.
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