When a movie has the budget of an MCU blockbuster, there’s a good chance a plethora of clips and footage will end up left on the cutting room floor. The final edit is oftentimes continually changing, even after marketing has started for the film and teaser trailers have been released. One recent example of that came with Thor: Ragnarok, as Hela (Cate Blanchett) originally returned from Hel in a New York City alleyway.
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As seen in the first Ragnarok teaser, this is also the same scene where Hela was supposed to destroy Thor’s Mjolnir, something that eventually took place in an open field in Norway. Thanks to the massive “Infinity Saga” boxset Marvel Studios released last year, the initial alleyway scene has found its way online.
It’s pretty similar to the final cut that made it in the film. Both Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) track down Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and have a heart-to-heart chat; only here, Odin is a homeless man living on the streets of New York City. It’s unclear how Hela would have return this way as it’s explained in the final theatrical release that Odin was the one thing keeping her imprisoned in Hel. She only returned once Odin died and here, Odin is clearly very much alive when Hela returns.
After Ragnarok was first released in 2017, filmmaker Taika Waititi joked they changed the scene up simply because alleyways weren’t “cool” enough. “Here’s the thing, alley ways aren’t cool,” Waititi joked. “Fields are cool. Ask anyone.”
He added, “We originally shot some of that stuff on the set of our stuff in New York. What we wanted to do was have them go down to Earth and they see Doctor Strange and stuff but it felt too convenient that he was suddenly just down the road in an alley and also everything, up to then, everything was so fast-paced and all over the place. We wanted to go somewhere peaceful and actually chill out with those characters and be with Odin while he imparts this wisdom and stuff and not have to hear stupid yellow cabs honking out the back.”
Thor: Ragnarok is now streaming on Disney+.
Other upcoming projects from Marvel include Black Widow on May 1st, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, WandaVision in 2020, The Eternals November 6th, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.
