Entertainment Weekly’s Thor: Ragnarok blowout continues today and this time, it’s Creed breakout Tessa Thompson that has turned in a status report on Taika Waititi’s forthcoming superhero threequel.
On board to portray the fearsome warrior Valkyrie, Ragnarok marks Thompson’s first foray into the superhero space and here, the actress touches base on her experience starring opposite Chris Hemsworth – who reprises as Marvel’s God of Thunder – and Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster, a powerful sage who presides over a collection of gladiators on the far-flung planet of Sakaar. Much like The Collector before him, Goldblum’s character is considered one of the Elders of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and according to Thompson, her Valkyrie will strike up a “business relationship” with the eccentric Grandmaster come November.
Per EW, here’s what the actress had to say about her Asgardian:
“When we meet her and she meets Thor in Sakaar, I can’t really say much about what she’s doing there but she does have a relationship with Jeff Goldblum’s character — it’s a business relationship. She finds Thor and brings Thor to the Grandmaster thinking he might be of interest. The rest is a secret.”
In terms of Valkyrie’s appearance, Tessa Thompson told EW that the vivid colors glimpsed in Thor: Ragnarok are a result of Waititi’s creative approach, who wanted to place his own stamp on the MCU, in a manner of speaking.
“That was sort of a Taika remix. Marvel was really great, like “Do what you will with these characters.” In Ragnarok, you’ll see a Banner like you’ve never seen before. You’ll see Thor with the short hair, which happens when he becomes this gladiator for the Grandmaster. But you really do get to see these established characters in a new way. Obviously if they were really dedicated to the source material they would not have cast me. As far as the armor, she’s such a bad ass that she doesn’t need a lot of metal to protect her. I’m essentially in leather. I have some really cool, like, chain mail like basically with my arms I can sort of shield and use them as weapons as well. I wield two daggers, which are sort of attached to me. And I also have a very special sword.”
The fact that Marvel afforded Waititi plenty of creative freedom is exciting in and of itself, but in closing, Thompson touched on the possibility of her Valkyrie swinging by for an appearance in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. As one would expect, the actress danced around a concrete answer, but teased that a cameo role isn’t necessarily out of the equation.
“You never know where people will pop up. In the next phase, the hope is to find ways to interweave all these characters, and certainly with Infinity War, those are the culmination of a lot of work since Iron Man. She’s part of the tapestry now. For me, it’s exciting to join at a time with young actors like Brie Larson and Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan. We’re all hopefully going to meet in one of these movies.”
On November 3rd, Thor: Ragnarok will open at a time when Asgard is thrust into peril, largely thanks to Loki’s callous ruling on Odin’s throne coupled with the sudden arrival of Cate Blanchett’s Goddess of Death, Hela. Even for such an apocalyptic set-up, writer-director Waititi has teased the threequel’s comedic elements, which will no doubt burst to life when Thor and Hulk share the screen – you know, when they’re not at loggerheads in the dusty pits of Sakaar.