Marvel Studios made some big announcements
today during its fan event, one of which is the
confirmation of the Thor 3 title and release date.
The studio announced that Thor: Ragnarok will
open in theaters on July 28, 2017, with Chris
Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston confirmed to
reprise their roles as the God of Thunder and his
tricky brother Loki, respectively. Moreover, in
introducing the film, Marvel Studios president
Kevin Feige said it’s the key movie in the studio’s
Phase Three, as it takes place directly after the
events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. So what is a
“Rangarok”, you might ask?
In the Marvel Comics, the name “Ragnarok”
references a character who is a cyborg clone of
Thor. Yep, clones are coming to the MCU. The
key piece of info that might tell us why this is the
storyline that picks up after the end of Avengers:
Age of Ultron is the origin of Ragnarok. In the
comics, the real Thor goes missing in action and
is presumed dead. Tony Stark subsequently uses
one of Thor’s hairs (that he just happens to
have) and, with the help of Ant Man Hank Pym,
is able to clone Thor’s DNA and fuse it with Stark
technology.
We’ve heard that Avengers: Age of Ultron will be a
game-changer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe
in the way that Captain America: The Winter
Soldier was, and Feige recently confirmed that
the roster of the Avengers will change after
Ultron. So, with Ragnarok being the subtitle of
Thor 3, might we assume that Hemsworth’s
character faces grave danger in Age of Ultron,
turning up missing or quite possibly dead by the
end of the film? Obviously we don’t know, but it
doesn’t seem like a massive stretch of the
imagination, especially since Ultron will see Stark
pushing his technology to the limit in terms of
creating an evil robot.
In the comics, Stark uses this clone Thor to fight
for him during the Civil War storyline, which finds
Stark and Steve Rogers on opposing sides of a
battle over the registration and oversight of
superheroes. Civil War just so happens to be the
subtitle of Captain America 3, which will co-star
Robert Downey Jr. , so it’s all connected, you
see. It’s unclear how Hiddleston will fit into the
story since last we saw Loki he was presumed
dead and taking on the form of his father, whom
he likely killed, but the actor is one of the best
parts of the MCU so I’m not complaining about
his return.
A director has yet to be announced for Thor:
Ragnarok , but with the release date set I imagine
we should hear word on that front sometime early
next year. Currently, the film has the July 28th
weekend all to itself, but Fox’s The Fantastic
Four 2 is scheduled to open a week earlier. If
that film comes to fruition, I imagine a release
date shift is in the cards.
The Thor movies have been the weakest part of
the MCU thus far, so here’s hoping the Ragnarok
storyline gets the creative juices flowing and
makes for an exciting film. Hemworth’s a really
talented actor when he has the right material
(he’s incredible in Rush ), so I’d love for him to
get a chance to really shine with this
third Thor movie. What do you think about this
news, readers? For those of you familiar with
Ragnarok, is this an exciting storyline for a third
Thor movie? Where would you like to see the
character go? Sound off in the comments below.
[Update: As many have pointed out in the
comments, apparently there are two stories
involving the word Ragnarok in the Thor Marvel
comics. The other refers to an event that marks
the end of days for all of Asgard. Marvel's
official Wiki for the word is in reference to the
clone, but the press release for the film mentions
the "Norse End of Days" without going into
further detail.]
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