Thor Ragnarok: Who Is The Grandmaster?

Earlier this month, Marvel Studios officially announced that Jeff Goldblum will play the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok, Marvel's third Thor standalone movie. Don't know who the Grandmaster is? Read on to learn about one of the more powerful cosmic beings of the Marvel Universe.

The Grandmaster was created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema in 1969, and first appeared in Avengers #69. The Grandmaster is one of the Elders of the Universe (like the Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy). He is one of the oldest living beings in the universe. While his exact origin is lost to time, he is the virtually immortal sole survivor of one of the first intelligent races to evolve on one of the first galaxies created by the Big Bang.

Where his "brother," the Collector, obsesses over gathering rare and unique items and specimens from across the galaxy, the Grandmaster pours his energy into games. Having studied the games of countless civilizations across the universe, the Grandmaster took to creating his own games, tournaments, and contests, usually with pretty high stakes. Typically this involves collecting outstanding individuals or groups from across time, space, and realities to battle one another. These contests have involved the Avengers, the Defenders, the Squadron Sinister, and even the Justice League.

The Grandmaster's immense power includes the ability to resurrect mortals, but not near immortal beings like the Elders. This was a problem for him when the Collector was murdered, so he instead challenged Death itself to one of his games, betting his own life against the Collector's. The game was the "contest of champions," where the Grandmaster and Death each selected a team of heroes to battle against each other. The Grandmaster's team won, but Death still got her prize. She told the Grandmaster that the only way to resurrect the Collector was for the Grandmaster to sacrifice his own life. The Grandmaster agreed and died so that the Collector could live.

Death then challenged the Collector to a game. While the exact details of the game are unclear, both the Collector and the Grandmaster were alive when it finished. Not wanting to go down that path again, the Grandmaster used the Avengers and the Legion of the Unliving in another contest against Death. His victory granted the Elders of the Universe true immortality.

After the game was won, the Grandmaster and some of the other Elders attempted to use the Infinity Gems to kill Galactus and restart the universe. They believed that their newly won immortality would allow them to continue their existence and obsessions in the new universe. They failed, and the Grandmaster lost one of the Infinity Gems to Thanos.

In the intervening years, the Grandmaster has had encounters with the Defenders and developed a crush on Dazzler. In the post-Secret Wars universe, the Grandmaster and the Collector are competing in a new Contest of Champions set on the remnants of Battleworld, now called Battlerealm.

Check out when Thor: Ragnarok and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com's Movie Release Schedule.