Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies, Review | Tagged: avengers, bts, chris hemsworth, hela, hulk, kevin feige, loki, Marvel Cinematic Universe, mcu, special features, taika waititi, tessa thompson, thor, Thor: Ragnarok, tom hiddleston, valkyrie

Things We Learned From 'Thor: Ragnarok' Special Features

Thor: Ragnarok was such a technicolor delight of a Marvel Studios film thanks to director Taika Waititi and his incredible assembled cast and crew.  We'd been waiting to get our hands on a copy of the Ultra HD 4k set of the film, and thought we'd share some of the highlights from the bonus features on the Blu-Ray disc.

The bonus featurette documentaries total 34:25, not counting the gag reel, "Team Darryl", Marvel The First 10 Years and the deleted scenes.  We'll start with the first thing, the featurettes.

• Getting In Touch With Your Inner Thor begins with a super cute shadow puppet reenactment of the scene where Thor exposes Loki posing as Odin.
• Brad Winderbaum Executive producer says the first hero Marvel wanted to bring to the big screen after Iron Man was Thor.
• Kevin Feige says Thor brought a new humor to the series, and wanted Ragnarok to bring him to a new world but still have fun.
• Chris Hemsworth points out he's been playing thor for 7 years, and that when they did the first film, they didn't know if they'd get the Avengers film.
• Takia Waititi says they wanted to take it in a new direction, and keep it fun.
• Chris says they made the choice to lighten Thor's accent, since he's been on Earth for awhile.
• The Cirta scene was the first they filmed, Chris hanging upside down
• Sir Anthony Hopkins says Chris has a lot of courage, that he hasn't been affected by his great stardom and fame
• Jeff Goldblum calls Chris cute, "He's cute, he's so cute, he's Christmas."
• Cate Blanchett says he was amazing to work with, "a lot of us were riding on his shoulders, and what shoulders they were"
• Tom Hiddleston says his relationship with chris is different than any other he's had with anyone else.  "We have a short hand, he makes me laugh."
• "I'd do many more of them if people wanted to see them," Chris says.

Unstoppable Women: Hela and Valkyrie

• Taika says it's not the Thor movie you're expecting, not the one you want.
• He goes on to say "nowadays we need more female actors, they can hold their own against the guys."
• Mark calls both Tessa Thompson and Cate strong and amazing
• Kevin Feige calls Hela one of the most iconic characters in the Marvel Universe. "Scary and charming and deadly as any villain we've had."
• Cate was their first choice to play Hela.
• Tessa says the introduction of the character is amazing
• Tom says he understands the challenges with playing a villain, and that her presence is incredible
• "Some of my happiest times were beating people up," Cate said
• "Having Valkyrie be in this film, introducing her, she'll help lead the charge for the next chapter of the MCU."
• Tessa rocked her fighting training
• "We wanted to find a new way to show women fighting in film in general. I'd say she fights like a boy, but that diminishes the fact that she fights like a really strong woman," Tessa said
• Cate says that Tessa was compelling, and mysterious

Finding: Korg

• Winderbaum calls Taika a dream director
• Chris "the most wakey and physical director I've ever worked with"
• Cate: the minute you meet him, you think 'i'll do anything for you'
• "There's no continuity when you're living in the moment," Taika on set
• Hopkins says Taika is in command, and open for suggestions.  "I did things that were outlandish."
• Taika shaved Karl Urban's hair for playing Skurge
• 5,000 extras in some scenes- Taika tried on and wore some costumes on set
• Seeing Taika doing his mocap for Korg is the best thing
• "Pretty hard to be taken seriously when you're in that stuff."
• "What the world needs right now is Korg, the Rock Man."

Sakaar: On The Edge of the Known and Unknown:

• A look into the planet of Jack Kirby's vision
• "It's a physics phenominon," says Mark Ruffalo
• Sakaar is the toilet of the universe
• Kevin Feige says it's the most audacious set they've ever built for the most audacious film
• "The Grand Master is the photo negative of Odin", Tom Hiddleston
• "It was a good a time as I've ever had. It was fun and exciting, and I liked what we were doing", Jeff says
• The Hulk vs Thor scene in Thor: Ragnarok is totally based on Contest of Champions comic.
• Taika says he was really excited for the film to do the Thor Hulk stuff.
• Mark reinvented Banner, reinvented the Hulk, Hiddleston says.
• Tom loves the moment when Thor gets smashed by Hulk

Journey Into Mystery

• The events of Ragnarok happen during the same time as Civil War
• Early Stan Lee and Jack Kirby 'journey into mystery', and Walt Simonson ( his years on Thor 1983-1987)
• Turns out Walt was totally an extra!  He's seen wearing Asgardian clothes in the featurette
• Taika really wanted to make this movie a tribute to Jack Kirby
• Kevin says "it's almost like we've finally stepped into a Kirby drawing."
• "Everybody wants Planet Hulk," Ruffalo says
• "The fans are always who we think of.  Not just the now fans, but the older comic fans too."
• Gag reel with freaking Tom and Jeff skating is like the best thing
• Cate kept making noises when she shoots weapons

Also, Team Darryl is fabulous:

https://youtu.be/Lm-xX2ImOHI

The Marvel First 10 Years featurette takes a look at the assembled universe, starting with Iron Man, continuing with Thor.

• There are snippets of footage from the first films, and some onscene BTS moments.
• Captain America is always the moral backbone of the team.
• Fans of the MCU will no doubt really dig this addition.
• The Russo Brothers say that Civil War will have major implications for the next phase.
• "Every single marvel film will have culmination in the next two Avengers films."

There are also a collection of 8-bit scenes created as the captions say "to help filmmakers plan out the scenes".

Thor: Ragnarok is definitely an important addition to any MCU collection. Check back for our upcoming 4K review (including the Director's Commentary, because omg we need it).

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