It does bring a smile on our collective faces when we realize how greatly Avengers Infinity War expanded upon the Asgardian mythology and developed Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor. Thor was devastated at the start of Infinity War, gathered himself up to challenge Thanos for a rematch and ended up (almost) defeating the Mad Titan at the end of the movie.
Thor, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot travelled to Nidavellir in the movie to help Thor forge the mythical Stormbreaker armour. And then the movie shot Thor straight into the spotlight on Wakanda where the Avengers were in the middle of fighting and losing the war against Thanos’ forces.
But as it turns out, Thor’s storyline in the original Infinity War script included a major detail that was absent from the theatrical cut. Presenting – Thor and Rocket were supposed to fight giant snakes in original Infinity War storyline!!
The Art of Avengers: Infinity War is a book containing all the early concept arts for the movie that never made it to the final story arc. One of those pictures contains Thor and Rocket fighting what appears to be a pair of giant snakes. These snakes are if we were to take a wild guess, inspired by the Midgard Serpent of Norse Mythology.
Here is the picture we are talking about:
In Norse mythology, the Midgard Serpent is a God that exists as a reminder of order among chaos. In its native tongue, it is known as Jormungandr. The World Serpent is said to lie in the ocean and holds the entire world as it wraps its body around it.
The snake is said to be biting its own tail and holding a firm grip over it. The Norse Prophecy of Ragnarok or in simpler terms, Armageddon, is said to begin when the Midgard Serpent decides to let go of its tail, spewing the world with chaos and destruction as the End of Days come to Earth.
If Thor and Rocket would have actually ended up fighting gigantic snakes, the sight would have been something to behold. Considering Thor: Ragnarok literally had the event in its name that only begins when the Serpent decides to let go of its tail, featuring snakes in Infinity War could have been a good reference to the movie! But ultimately it would have served no purpose and maybe that is why the directors decided to not use it in the final cut of Infinity War.
Thor already had his hands full with Thanos, whom he failed to kill at the end. As a result, half of all life in the universe was wiped out. Kevin Feige had this to say about Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
“Thanos has been lurking in the shadows with a desire to obtain these Infinity Stones, which has played a big part in our other films,” Feige said in Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years. “We’ve introduced the Tesseract, revealed to be the Space Stone; the Mind Stone, which came out of Loki’s scepter and then went into Vision’s forehead; and the Time Stone: the Eye of Agamotto that Doctor Strange wears is an Infinity Stone itself! And of course, the Guardians dealt with the Power Stone.”
“So these storytelling devices that we’ve seeded into every film will continue to play a part and come together. We’ve been teasing this for six years. That’s a long time to tease something cinematically before paying it off. Thanos has to be the greatest villain in our movies.”
Thor and Rocket last appeared in Avengers: Infinity War. The official film synopsis for the movie reads:
Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.
