How 'Thor: Ragnarok' Throws Shade at 'Thor: The Dark World'

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the marketing for Thor: Ragnarok that the film is quite a departure from the two prior Thor movies.

What may not have come through in the marketing is that Thor: Ragnarok is also the most meta Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to date, and that includes a scene that serves as a kind of parody of the previous movies, specifically Thor: The Dark World.

Thor: Ragnarok SPOILERS follow.

The scene in question comes when Thor returns to Asgard. There he finds Odin – actually Loki in disguise – watching a play that recounts Loki's noble sacrifice to save Asgard in Thor: The Dark World. The play features several known actors in cameo roles playing Thor, Loki, and Odin, and the stage production feels a bit over the top.

Its hard not to feel like part of the purpose of this scene is for Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi to highlight the tonal differences between his Thor movie and those that preceded it.

The first Thor movie was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who is best known for directing movies based on Shakespeare. Thor: The Dark World was directed by Alan Taylor, who has a variety of prestige television projects under his belt but was likely given the Marvel Studios job for his work on HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones. Those sensibilities could be plainly seen in their Thor movies.

By comparison to his predecessors, Waititi has a much more comedic sensibility, and that shows up a lot in Thor: Ragnarok. The scene with the play seems like Waititi casting the more serious and theatrical elements of Thor and Thor: The Dark World in a sillier light.

Thor: Ragnarok currently has a 4.17 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating, making it the third most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com Users.

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Thor: Ragnarok opens is in theaters now. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Black Panther on February 16, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War on May 4, 2018, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.