Thor’s Costume Callbacks
As the marketing for the movie made clear, Thor gets a new look in Ragnarok, which means that Chris Hemsworth gets to go without his long blonde wig for the first time.
The short hair look is also a reference to recent developments in the Marvel comics universe. After being deemed no longer worthy to lift Mjolnir, Thor lost his powers and took to calling himself Odinson. With this revamp came a haircut as well and Thor lost his locks. Just like in that storyline, he loses his hammer in Ragnarok, so the nod to Odinson is a clever callback. The character’s revamped armour also hues closer to Odinson’s get-up in the comics.
There’s still a nod to his classic look in Ragnarok, though. The helmet he wears while battling Hulk is a homage to the winged helmet the God of Thunder always wears on the page but hasn’t donned in the films since the beginning of 2011’s Thor.
Shady Acres
When Thor and Loki travel to Earth to locate Odin, they come to the demolished Shady Acres retirement home in New York. Depending on your tastes, this name may seem familiar, as it’s frequently used in comedy movies and TV shows.
The first reference to it we could find is in 1994’s Ace Ventura Pet Detective in which Jim Carrey’s protagonist infiltrates the Shady Acres psychiatric facility. Then in 1996’s Adam Sandler vehicle Happy Gilmore, Happy’s grandma is moved to Shady Acres Retirement Home. Shady Acres is probably most recognizable from South Park though, where it’s the name of the establishment in which Stan Marsh’s grandpa lives. Weirdly, the building is also referenced a few times in the GTA: Vice City video game.
The origins of the easter egg come from movie producer and director Tom Shadyac, who runs a company called Shady Acres Productions. Somewhere along the line, it must mean something to Taika Waititi, too, hence the reference in Thor: Ragnarok.