Meeting the Cast of Thor: Ragnarok

By Devon Biroczky

The newest addition into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Thor: Ragnarok, the next story in which our beloved God of Thunder is trying to save Asgard from complete and utter chaos. I had the pleasure of sitting down and interviewing the cast from this flashy movie and talking with them all about how it came to be.

·         Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”)

·         Mark Ruffalo (“Bruce Banner / The Hulk”)

·         Cate Blanchett (“Hela”)

·         Tom Hiddleston (“Loki”)

·         Jeff Goldblum (“Grandmaster”)

·         Tessa Thompson (“Valkyrie”)

·         Karl Urban (“Skurge”)

·         Rachel House (“Topaz”)

·         Director Taika Waititi (also “Korg”)

·         Producer Kevin Feige

Immediately into the press junket, it already started lightheartedly as the host was introducing everybody, and saved Chris Hemsworth for last, joking about how he skipped over him as we watched Chris try to squeeze himself in between everybody and the tables to get to his seat in the middle.

When you go see this movie, which opens in theaters everywhere November 3^rd, you will notice what exactly I meant when I said this movie was flashy. I will be going over that more on Friday in my review, but for right now, just trust me when I tell you how lively it really is. Everybody in the cast had wonderful things to say about Taika Waititi’s style of directing and how he was able to take their shared vision and transfer it the way he did. Chris Hemsworth said it best when he was explaining it, “it all came from his crazy, wonderful brain, and his inspiration, and him pushing us every day on set, and constantly encouraging us to improvise, and explore, and take risks.”

Kevin Fiege also agreed when it came to everybody wanting to reinvent the series, taking everything that they knew about Thor and wanting to give it a new sensibility. You’ll notice that in this movie, there is more humor than in the Thor movies prior, and Kevin credits Taika again with giving the actors the confidence to be able to explore that side of them.

Especially looking at The Hulk and the role he plays in this movie. We see him much more in this movie and it inspired somebody to ask Mark Ruffalo on his thoughts about doing a stand-alone Hulk movie. Mark explained to us that he and Kevin had a discussion “well over a year ago” where Kevin had asked him what he would want to do if he had a stand-alone movie. They went back and forth and created these ideas, which they ended up implementing into Thor: Ragnarok and will be in the next two Avengers movies. Kevin goes on to explain that they’re all very excited about the upcoming character arc for The Hulk in these next three movies, so they’re going to take it one step at a time.

Mark even jokes, “And Taika is gonna take all three of those movies and cut it into one movie. And that’ll be on the DVD. And me and Taika can own that, right?” Oh man, I’d love to watch that movie.

Speaking of movies I’d love to watch, somebody asked Tessa later on, “Is there

any chance that we could see maybe you doing a Valkyrie solo movie?” Everybody in the cast agreed in unison that this would be a great idea, and Tessa went on to tell us that recently, she and “a couple other women who work in Marvel” had marched up to Kevin and asked about doing a movie with more female superheroes. And to that I say, yes please.

Many of the characters in the MCU have grown and changed, adapting to their surroundings as the movies have gone on. One character that never ceases to rattle me is Tom Hiddleston’s character, Loki. He’s truly the villain you love to hate and hate to love, but what else would you expect from the God of Mischief? Tom even goes on to talk about the development of the relationship between both Loki and Thor, being brothers. “Thor has evolved, and grown, and matured; and Loki in a way is stuck in his struggles of the past.” Couldn’t have said it better myself, Tom. Loki is one character I especially look forward to seeing more from in future movies, seeing what paths he decides to take and the decisions he makes.

Karl Urban’s character Skurge was introduced in this movie, bringing Karl into the MCU as well. When asked about coming into this universe, he explains that not only was the schedule for his workouts very intense, but he also talks about how wonderful it was working with Taika as director, saying “It was fun; it was focused. He would often play music.” As soon as he mentioned the music, it prompted somebody to ask whether or not Jeff Goldblum was secretly playing some of the music on the score of the film. Truthfully, he was not on the score, but he was caught playing music on set several times, playing piano and even singing.

Overall, this was such a fun cast to be able to interview! The entire time, everybody was upbeat and lively, there was never a quiet moment with everybody joking around, and you can really tell just how close everybody has grown.

There was so much more, but you’re going to have to see this movie for yourself. I will be posting my review about it on Friday, so be sure to check in and see what I thought before you go watch it yourself! Thor: Ragnarok is open in theaters this Friday, November 3^rd, so be sure to go see it. In the meantime, check out the trailer below!