Thor: Ragnarok dropped its first trailer on us. Oh, you feel like watching it for the twenty-ninth time? That sounds like a plan! Might be a good time to do that since we’re gonna pick this bad boy apart. So, give your peepers a little treat and I’ll be here when you’re all done rocking out to that sweet, sweet Zeppelin.
Now that you have a minor case of whiplash from your appropriate headbanging, let’s dive into this trailer and learn everything we can. If you don’t like reading, here’s a video analysis from or own Jeremy Inman…
Welcome to Hel(a)
The trailer starts with someone being dropped down a nasty looking pit. He’s all tied up in chains. I wonder if that’s going to be Phil Coulson or Justin Hammer?
Oh, what a surprise! It’s Thor Odinson, who is looking none too happy about his predicament. Maybe that has something to do with the surrounding decor…
Lovely! This is probably Hel, the Asgardian land of the dead. Well, the land of the dead for everyone who doesn’t get to go to Valhalla. And the ruler of this charming vacation spot?
Meet Hela (Cate Blanchett). If the movie follows the continuity of the comics, this is Loki’s daughter. Yup, evil intentions and over-the-top headwear seem to run in the family. But other than her antler art piece of a helmet, why is she so threatening?
OH SNAP. We’re introduced to Hela by seeing her catch Mjolnir, Thor’s incredibly powerful hammer. That’s pretty hardcore already. How could she get any scarier?
WHOA. Hela crushes one of the mightiest weapons in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Looks like Thor: Ragnarok will be taking a page out of Iron Man 3‘s book and making the title character learn that they need to be able to fight without always relying on their trademark weaponry.
RIP Mjolnir.
Hela seems to have some beef with Asgard. We see her stand before the city’s army and tell them that Asgard is dead. That doesn’t sound good.
Hela whips out her sword – which looks like every Renaissance Faire weapon I wanted when I was 14 – and makes good on her previous statement.
We see waves of flames engulf Asgard. As far as the Thor films go, this one is promising the most personal devastation for our characters. Hela is going to be a villain worthy of defeating.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
After the destruction of Asgard, we see Thor plummeting from the sky into what looks like a junkyard. Has he been flung there by Hela?
This planet is almost certainly Sakaar. It’s here we start to see the Guardians of the Galaxy influence begin to take hold. The trailer from here on out looks like Star Wars meets Saturday morning cartoons.
Love, love, LOVE all the aliens we see in this trailer. This isn’t even the most colorful design we’ll see. These are probably scavengers of some sort.
One of the scavengers – who Kim Taylor-Foster says looks like Queen Amidala from The Phantom Menace and now that’s all I can see – shoots some kind of electrified net at Thor and takes him down.
We get our first shot of Valkyrie as she drags Thor onto a spaceship. It will be interesting to see how she interacts with Thor since she is an Asgardian. She must know who he is, so is it possible they have some bad history? That could be why she’s cool with capturing him for her own needs.
A Beautiful and Terrible Queen
We then cut to what looks like some big battle against Hela. This has got to be some kind of flashback that presents her origin story.
Damn, Cate Blanchett looks metal in this. She points her big sword at the charging warriors and…
Ashes, ashes, they all fall down. This trailer does a fantastic job setting up just how powerful Hela is going to be.
“A contender.”
Back on Sakaar, Thor is locked away by some more awesome looking aliens.
Oh happy, happy day. Here’s Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster. He runs the show on Sakaar and is always looking for some new talent. Valkyrie thinks Thor could be just what he’s after.
Old and New Faces
Cut to someone cutting down an unknown figure that seems to have some visual characteristics of Hela. Is this some kind of soldier that’s at Hela’s disposal? Superhero movies love to have repetitive, disposable armies of mindless baddies to strike down. My money is this will be Thor: Ragnarok‘s version of that. But who is that slicing and dicing?
Yeah yeah! That’s Heimdall, back doing what he does best: being awesome. We last saw him in Avengers: Age of Ultron but that was in a vision that Scarlet Witch put into Thor’s brain. We haven’t kept up with the real Heimdall so it’ll be great to see what he’s been up to, And is he giving that sword the eye? Could it be some mystical weapon that is needed to defeat Hela?
Here’s a shot worth theorizing about. This spaceship we see has a very distinct color pattern. It’s actually the color pattern of Captain Marvel. Could this be the first tease of Brie Larson’s appearance in the MCU? Fingers crossed.
We also get our first look at Karl Urban as Skurge the Executioner. It’s unclear exactly where this is taking place, but the Earth guns might mean this is one of the parts that takes place on our home planet. Most of Thor: Ragnarok will be set in space so this could be a key scene. And with Natalie Portman officially done with Marvel, could Skurge be responsible for Jane Foster’s death?
More cool alien designs. Love how colorful and poppy this world is.
Looks like Hela doesn’t immediately decimate Asgard. Instead, it looks like she’s going to kill the army singlehandedly in combat. Man, she is one fearsome foe.
I was wondering when Loki was going to show up! This trailer keeps him very under wraps, so the movie has a lot of explaining to do in filling us in on what happened between Thor: The Dark World and the little tease we got at the end of Doctor Strange.
The Main Event
We get to see an enormous coliseum as the Grandmaster promises us something good. Huh, these people seem to really like the color green. Wonder why?
Thor gets a gladiatorial makeover and it’s pretty sweet! Dig the short hair and warpaint. This is the coolest he has ever looked. Only one thing could make him cooler…
While we did see Thor with a more classic helmet back in his first movie, this is a cool design that feels more in tune with the streamlined MCU aesthetic. Digging it.
The moment we’ve al been waiting for, Gladiator Hulk is in the house. Now those green clouds make sense! This idea is an adaptation of the “Planet Hulk” arc from the comics in which Hulk was sent into space to prevent him from further damaging the Earth. He landed on Sakaar and ended up becoming a hero to the people and overthrew the tyrannical regime. Afterward, he came back to Earth with a vengeance but we’ll see if that’s how things shake out this time.
Easily the best moment of the trailer. Thor’s joy at finding an ally out here in space reaffirms what we love about the MCU movies: the relationships between the characters.
The Grandmaster doesn’t seem too pleased about Thor and Hulk’s bromance.
Our only other shot of Loki has him chilling out with the Grandmaster. Odds are he’s happy to see Thor stuck on Sakaar. However, he doesn’t seem stoked about seeing Hulk again. He’s probably having PTSD flashbacks from the “puny god” incident.
Huh, Hulk doesn’t look too jazzed to see Thor…
Oh, please let it be so!
This is too much fun to bear.
The last shot of the trailer goes out with the biggest bang possible. We love seeing these two characters duke it out, and Thor: Ragnarok is promising their best showdown yet.
Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on November 3.
