One of the most notable absentees from last year’s Captain America: Civil War was Thor. The Asgardian sat out the Russo brother’s massive Avengers showdown, but he’s going be back with the force of Mjolnir late in 2017 with Thor: Ragnarok.

Taikai Waititi’s threequel will, of course, be picking up with the God of Thunder on his quest to crack the mystery of the Infinity Stones from the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron (something that brings him into contact with a waylaid Hulk). There’s also the matter of Loki usurping the throne of Asgard from Odin, which will lead to the pair teaming up with Doctor Strange. All that alongside villain Hela threatening to destroy the realm. No wonder he couldn’t make it to the big fight back on Earth. It’s not just the set of characters that distinguishes the two movies, however.

In a conversation with The A.V. Club, Waititi commented on how different Ragnarok is to the MCU’s more grounded films, talking about how the strange cast and settings contrast to Civil War:

Thor movies have always been more out-there entries in the MCU, what with their mixed Shakespearean and high fantasy influences, and this reaffirms that Ragnarok will go even further. All of Marvel’s Phase 3 films look to be trying to present unique experiences, and Thor 3 is no different.

“Sometimes I would stop and think, I’m doing a movie that’s got Thor and Doctor Strange and The Incredible Hulk and Loki and every character is so strange and different. Civil War it’s just humans, humans with human problems. Ours is creatures and beings and all these sorts of really different characters. Again displaying human problems, but in outer space or in other worlds.”

This isn’t the first time that the film has been compared to the Captain America franchise. At the Marvel Phase 3 slate announcement in 2014, Kevin Feige said Ragnarok would be taking a similar approach to The Winter Soldier in regards to how it’s set to change the Avenger:

In light of Waititi’s recent comments, it’s very refreshing that “the plan” wasn’t just to ape what the brother duo did with The Winter Soldier and Civil War, but instead move in a unique direction just with the same level of confidence.

“This is a very important movie for us in our Phase 3 timeline. As the Russos did so well reinventing Captain America in The Winter Soldier and changing everything that would come after it, that is the plan for Thor: Ragnarok - to take Thor to another level of his own franchise.

Waititi also revealed in the interview that he’s going to be making a cameo in the film. He’s appeared in all his previous directing efforts, most notably as a major part of What We Do In The Shadows. Talking of his recurring appearances, the director said “It’s not like a thing that I’ve ever planned, but now I’m in all of my movies in a small role or a larger role. I’ll probably just keep doing that. It’s like a dumb thing I do now.”

Source: The A.V. Club

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