50 Fun Facts About Thor: Ragnarok

Who directed Thor: Ragnarok?

He also plays Korg, the soft-spoken rock gladiator, via motion capture.

Which fire demon holds Thor prisoner at the start of the film?

Thor takes his crown, thinking he has prevented Ragnarök; by the end he has to put it back in the Eternal Flame on purpose.

Who is Thor's previously unknown older sibling, freed by Odin's death?

In the comics and Norse myth she is Loki's daughter; making her Thor's sister was screenwriter Eric Pearson's idea, to raise the stakes of their final fight.

In which country do Thor and Loki find the dying Odin?

The scene was originally set in a New York alley with Odin as a hobo; Waititi moved it during reshoots to give the moment weight.

What does Hela do to Mjolnir moments after appearing?

Chris Hemsworth wanted the character stripped down: shorter hair, no hammer, and eventually one eye.

What is the name of the garbage planet Thor crash-lands on?

Producer Brad Winderbaum called it 'the toilet of the universe', with wormholes spitting junk onto it for eons.

What is Valkyrie's designation when she works for the Grandmaster?

She is based on the mythological Brynhildr and is the last of Asgard's female warriors, who were wiped out fighting Hela.

Who plays Valkyrie?

She trained while looking at pictures of Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, and got a scene hinting at the character's bisexuality shot, though it was cut.

Whom does Thor face in the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions?

Thor is winning until the Grandmaster zaps him with the obedience disk to protect his champion.

What triggers the Hulk's transformation back into Bruce Banner for the first time in two years?

Scarlett Johansson appears only through archival footage from Age of Ultron.

Which two aliens incite the gladiator revolution?

Miek has no actor: he is a larva-like creature with cybernetic limbs who never speaks.

What does Thor lose in his battle with Hela?

A vision of Odin then makes him realise that only Ragnarök itself can stop her.

How is Hela finally defeated?

Loki places the fire demon's crown in the Eternal Flame on Thor's orders, deliberately triggering the apocalypse the whole film tried to avoid.

What is the name of the Grandmaster's ship that carries the surviving Asgardians away?

Its interception by a giant warship in the mid-credits scene leads straight into Avengers: Infinity War.

Who plays Hela?

She studied capoeira for the role and modelled Hela's movement on 1970s punk iconography.

Which punk singer inspired the movement of the actress playing Hela?

Hela's look came from Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder comics, and her weapon-summoning power was borrowed from that book's villain Gorr.

Who plays the Grandmaster?

Waititi skipped the character's comic-book blue skin partly because Goldblum had already been blue in Earth Girls Are Easy.

The Grandmaster is the brother of which Guardians of the Galaxy character?

Kevin Feige said he would like to see Goldblum and Benicio del Toro share the screen one day.

Who plays Skurge, Hela's executioner?

He shaved his head for the part and gets a redemptive death defending the Asgardians on the Bifröst.

Whose voice did Waititi base Korg's soft-spoken delivery on?

He also drew on his friend and frequent co-star Rhys Darby.

Who voices the fire demon that Waititi performed in motion capture?

Waititi did the motion capture himself, as he did for Korg.

What is Stan Lee's cameo in Ragnarok?

'Now don't you move, my hands aren't as steady as they used to be,' he says, wielding a whirring contraption.

Which Hollywood star plays the Loki actor in the Asgardian play?

Chris Hemsworth suggested him; Damon flew from New York to Atlanta during reshoots to shoot it 'on a lark'.

Who plays the Thor actor in the play?

Sam Neill, a Hunt for the Wilderpeople veteran, plays the Odin actor in the same sequence.

Which scene did Waititi write and shoot on another Marvel film's sets before they were demolished?

Marvel liked it so much it also runs during that film's credits.

Which 2006 comic storyline was folded into the film once Mark Ruffalo signed on?

Marvel had earlier cut a shot of the Hulk's Quinjet near Saturn from Age of Ultron specifically to squash rumours of that adaptation.

Which Led Zeppelin track, used in Waititi's pitch reel, made it into the film and its marketing?

Feige said the reel's use of the song 'defined what Taika was going to do with this'.

Which 1986 Kurt Russell film did Waititi cite as the tonal touchstone for Ragnarok?

He also made every department head watch a 1980 space-opera camp classic before starting work.

Which 1980 film did Waititi ask every department head to watch before starting work?

Its Queen-scored, candy-coloured space camp is all over the film; Waititi said he would have hired Queen for the soundtrack if Freddie Mercury were alive.

Roughly what share of the film's dialogue did Waititi say was improvised?

He describes standing beside the camera shouting alternative lines at the actors mid-take.

Where was the film shot?

Chris Hemsworth had asked Marvel to make it in his home country; Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast gave up all nine sound stages.

What was the film's working title?

Filming began under that name on July 4, 2016, using all nine of the studio's sound stages.

Which Australian city doubled as New York City?

Its central business district hosted the shoot from August 22 to 25, 2016.

Who suggested Thor's line that the Hulk is 'a friend from work'?

It became the most quoted line in the trailer, which was watched 136 million times in a day.

Who composed the synth-heavy score?

The Devo co-founder's score was influenced by Jean-Michel Jarre, and it quotes Patrick Doyle's and Brian Tyler's earlier Thor themes.

Which Willy Wonka number plays as Thor arrives on the garbage planet?

The 1971 song scores the Grandmaster's welcome video, and Joe Harnell's Incredible Hulk TV theme also turns up.

What does Ragnarok reveal about the Infinity Gauntlet glimpsed in Odin's vault in the first Thor?

Marvel had planted it as an Easter egg before Infinity War was planned, then had to write it off; Hela knocks it over with a sneer.

Whose spaceship intercepts the Asgardian refugee ship in the mid-credits scene?

It is Sanctuary II, and its arrival is the opening of Avengers: Infinity War.

Which Guardians character has a deleted scene because the actor was 'goofing around' nearby?

Michael Rooker was recording material for a Halloween version of the Guardians theme-park ride and dropped by.

Which director of the previous film declined to return, calling his Marvel experience 'wrenching'?

Ruben Fleischer, Rob Letterman and Rawson Marshall Thurber were also considered before Waititi.

Which character was Jaimie Alexander unable to reprise because of her TV series Blindspot?

Sif appears only as a character in Loki's play, portrayed by Charlotte Nicdao.

Which two writers shared the story credit with sole screenwriter Eric Pearson after a dispute?

Stephany Folsom's story credit was denied by the Writers Guild, which allows a maximum of two story credits, a team counting as one.

How long was Waititi's initial cut before it was trimmed and then partly restored?

It got down to about ninety minutes before Comic-Con, after which many of the jokes were put back.

Which Guardians character did Waititi hope to include but found 'no real way to pull it off'?

John C. Reilly's character had been Waititi's model for a 'regular guy' in space.

Roughly how much did Thor: Ragnarok gross worldwide?

It out-grossed the first two Thor films combined by the end of its third weekend.

What was the film's opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, the biggest of the Thor films?

It passed the entire domestic runs of Thor and The Dark World during its second weekend.

Which country was the film's largest market outside the U.S. and Canada?

Its $56.3 million debut there was the biggest November opening ever in China at the time.

Which home-release short sees the Grandmaster move in with Thor's old Australian flatmate?

It continues the Team Thor mockumentaries Waititi made for Comic-Con and the Civil War and Doctor Strange discs.

How much did Chris Hemsworth earn for the film?

He said he had grown a bit bored of Thor after four outings and wanted to take risks with the character.

What was the title of the 2022 sequel?

Natalie Portman returned as a hammer-wielding Jane Foster and Christian Bale played Gorr the God Butcher.