Marvel and Disney have now officially confirmed the cast of Thor: Ragnarok, which adds Karl Urban and Jeff Goldblum (yes!) to an already beefy cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, and Mark Ruffalo.
Goldblum joins the MCU as the Grandmaster, one of the ageless Elders of the Universe (like The Collector from Guardians Of The Galaxy). To numb the endless boredom of eternal life, he has mastered pretty much all games of skill and chance. He’s not in the original Ragnarok comic storyline, but fits in with the greater MCU nicely and with Jeff Freakin’ Goldblum on board this is going to be a fun character.
Urban (Dredd, Star Trek) has been cast as a character named Skurge, also known as The Executioner. An Asgardian and frequent antagonist of Thor, who was originally depicted as a villain in conjunction with Thor’s brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the character has a huge arc in the Ragnarok storyline.
They’ve also confirmed that recently added Tessa Thompson will play a big part in the movie, taking on the role of Valkyrie, and presumably taking up the mantel of Thor’s love interest now that Natalie Portman‘s Dr Jane Foster is not returning. Finally, the studio has validated the prevailing fan theory, that Cate Blanchett will be playing the film’s new villain Hela, ruler of the Asgardian underworld, adding another juicy villain role to Blanchett’s considerable playbook. Marvel has also released some concept art showing us a glimpse of the character’s direction:
Thor: Ragnarok will be directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows), which makes a huge departure for the Kiwi director, but possibly a welcome flavour to the Thor universe and the MCU as a whole. I’m excited to see where this one goes, after a bit of a lackluster second installment the pieces are in place for this to be a Winter Soldier style turnaround for our favourite Norse god. Now only a year and a half to wait!
THOR: RAGNAROK will hit theatres in November 2017.