Thor: Ragnarok
WithThor : Ragnarokadapting thecomic book storylineof the same name , it ’d be easy to dismiss the film as just another entranceway in theThortrilogy : esoteric , tied to Asgard and not all that connected to the rest of the MCU , with the exclusion of Mark Ruffalo ’s Hulk hang around and tower it up , as he tends to do .
It persist to be seen exactly what impression the ruinous events of Ragnarok will have on the all-embracing universe , but one proclaimed character suffer out : Grandmaster , Jeff Goldblum ’s mysterious role . He ’s not connected to Asgard , Ragnarok or even Thor in particular . So who is Grandmaster , and what ’s he doing in a movie about the great unwashed from Norse mythology all getting together to drink down each other ?
Grandmaster - real name En Dwi Gast - is an ‘ elderberry bush of the Universe ’ , a fancy fashion of saying that he ’s been around for a really long time . Having endure for aeon , he eventually grew to enjoy learning about and playing all sorts of game , which is his driving motivating is most of his appearance . Never a truthful villain , En Dwi Gast exists to bring in enjoyment from challenges and trials ready to lesser mortals , mostly act as a cosmic ( and far more successful ) edition of the X - Men villain Arcade .
Over the geezerhood , he ’s played game with the Avengers , the Defenders , the X - Men and many others , often popping up at metre when he ’s least require and messing up everyone ’s day by forcing them into some kind of challenge that they emphatically did n’t sign up for . Grandmaster also hold onto an Infinity Gem for a while - specifically , the Mind Gem - though he handle Brobdingnagian cosmic big businessman without any variety of source , including the power to buckle reality to his whimsy , as well as true immortality ; nothing can kill or even harm him .
Grandmaster may not necessarily be a major player inThor : Ragnarok , give that he has nothing to do with the story in the cartoon strip . If he is incorporated into the plot , it could be that he set the principal characters against each other in one of his games , triggering Ragnarok for the sake of it making his tiresome being slightly more interesting .
However , it seems more potential that this will serve as an introduction for Jeff Goldblum ’s Grandmaster . Thor revert to Asgard to find out more about the Infinity Stones , Grandmaster is a cosmic being who ’d plausibly know all about that intergalactic nonsense and the two could have a abbreviated confluence , meet with minatory imagery and plenty of juicy foreshadowing .
This would be a pregnant step for the MCU , which thus far has only show cosmic organism as ancient entities . Guardians of the Galaxyhad an integral sequence set inside the severed principal of a Celestial ( gigantic ancient beingness ) , the excavation colony Knowhere . Meanwhile , we see an actual , armored Celestial in a flashback , using the Power Stone to pass over out an entire planet . Grandmaster could well be the very first cosmic being to seem in the present - day MCU , accept the population some savage Modern district . Whatever the reason for his appearance , it ’s likely wed to the Infinity Stones ; everything in the MCU seems to revolve around them , after all .
Just for something wholly different : assemble Skurge , a.k.a . Executioner . If you ’re intimate with the Norse custom of ‘ berserker ’ , that total him up nicely ; a ruthless warrior able-bodied to enter a hysteria during struggle that makes them almost unstoppable . As the boy of an Asgardian warrior and a Robert Frost whale , Skurge became a notable warrior himself , pull in the name ‘ public executioner ’ . However , he ’s mostly been classify to the tough guy side after being seduce by Amora , better roll in the hay as ‘ witch ’ . Another lasting thorn in the side of Odin and Asgard , Enchantress has tried clock time and time again throughout one thousand of years to place Asgard and the balance of the nine worlds under her control .
Skurge ’s answer to most of life ’s problems is to whoop at them with his battle axe or just plug them with his massive superhuman strength , but he ’s not without astuteness . His loyalty comes from being dead love - struck , eternally bound to Enchantress for that date that she keeps frame off . As a upshot , Executioner has found himself clashing with Odin and Thor as part of his schoolma’am ’ schemes , shew to be one of the fiercest adversaries for the god of skag . He also teamed up with various villains over the year ( usually once again being draw along by Enchantress ) , admit Loki ; by this level it ’s much a Marvel baddie ritual of passageway to team up with and then be betrayed by Loki .
Skurge eventually met his blinking and brilliant end aiding Thor in rescuing steal souls from the realm of Hel that had been taken by Hela , goddess of the dead . Though they succeed , someone had to stay behind to guard the bridge of Gjellerbru , which led from Hel to the realm of the living . Armed with twin auto gun ( because why not ? ) , Executioner made one final bandstand , mowing down the armies of the dead and allowing his comrades to take to the woods . After his expiry , it was this heroic act that allowed him into Valhalla , a place for honored Asgardian warrior .
Karl Urban ’s version of Skurge in the MCU is less absolved at this stage , though we do get a few hints from what we ’ve been told so far . There ’s been no word on the presence of Amora , meaning that he may be serving a new master / mistress . If so , it seems likely that the function of Enchantress will go to Hela ( Cate Blanchett ) . It would make sense to crush the two characters together , creating an discharge for Skurge that require him working for her ( probably again under her bondage while she keep promising him a rainfall - curb on that candlelit dinner ) and perhaps satisfy his comic function by dying awesomely on the side of commodity .
This fits in with what we know about the characterfrom Karl Urban , who has said that his reference is ‘ marvelous ’ and has ‘ a great arc ’ . This is all hearsay , and with the picture not even properly finished anything could alter . However , it does signal to Skurge playing out a compressed version of his laughable Christian Bible role … and here ’s skip for a massive battle between him and Thor .
You might notice that - in terms of major antagonists - Thor has thus far faced a nigh - indestructible optical maser - face robot ( the Destroyer ) , his own weedy , illusionist chum , a unearthly monster and a dismal elf who was in the first place trump in combat by Thor ’s own mother . If this is to be the finalThorsolo movie have Chris Hemsworth , then Skurge / Executioner could finally be a worthy challenge for the MCU ’s god of thunder .
Captain America : civic Waris in theaters now . Doctor Strangeopens November 4 , 2016;Guardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2 – May 5 , 2017;Spider - Man : Homecoming – July 7 , 2017;Thor : Ragnarok – November 3 , 2017;Black Panther – February 16 , 2018;Avengers : Infinity War Part 1 – May 4 , 2018;Ant - humanity and the Wasp – July 6 , 2018;Captain Marvel – March 8 , 2019;Avengers : Infinity War Part 2 – May 3 , 2019 ; and as - yet untitled Marvel movies on July 12 , 2019 , and on May 1 , July 10 , and November 6 in 2020 .
