Original ‘Thor’ Concept Art Shows Much Different Version of Asgard

Over the course of twenty films, fans have seen quite a lot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — […]

August 16, 2018, 10:06pm

Over the course of twenty films, fans have seen quite a lot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — but one key part of it almost looked completely different.

Concept artist Charlie Wen recently shared early sketches he did for the first Thor movie. The sketches, which you can check out below, envision the world of Asgard in a completely different way, with a spiral-like design of buildings and an overall greener color palette.

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Asgard: First Sketches! I was envisioning Asgard as a realm centered around the mind of Odin. Like the “Wacky Loki” version from earlier, where Loki’s armor responded to his mind, Asgard is centered around Odin’s throne. The layout of Asgard was as interconnected as the knotting of Norse symbols and the Asgardian costumes, reflected in Thor, Loki, Odin, and the Warriors 3 costumes. This interconnectedness stemmed from the power of Odin, and are essentially created by him. The shapes of the kingdom’s layout are influenced by Odin’s mind. (This power of mind is an aspect of Odin’s character that Loki was greatly influenced). Although powered by Odin, Asgard itself responds to the will and mind of its citizens. And like an enormous Swiss watch, the workings of the great realm is timed perfectly. * * * * * * * #asgard #thor #loki #odin #marvel #avengers #norse #keyframe #throwback #conceptdesign #picoftheday #costume #makingof #fantasy #comicbookmovies #design #movie #superhero #conceptart #chrishemsworth #marvelstudios #art #worldbuilding #marvelcinematicuniverse #story #visualstorytelling #academyawards #tomhiddleston #visualdevelopment #swisswatch @marvelstudios @marvel @imcharliewen @twhiddleston @chrishemsworth @anthonyhopkins
A post shared by Charlie Wen (@imcharliewen) on Aug 15, 2018 at 9:04am PDT

While Asgard has gone through several subtle evolutions since debuting in Thor, it’s pretty interesting to see how the kingdom was originally envisioned. It also adds an extra bit of significance to how Asgard was depicted in last year’s Thor: Ragnarok, as the film’s creative team had to make some new creative decisions.

“We sort of tried to give it more of a humanity, tried to come down to the world of real gods and demigods.” production designer Dan Hennah told ComicBook.com. “Of course it would be above and beyond the reach of normal people, but it’s a much more real world… Refugees have been taken out of the city. So we need to get down to that sort of population a little as opposed to the (larger) world. Asgard is the home of the gods, so the assumption is that most of these people here—thousands of them—are some sort of demigods or children of gods. It’s more about the forces of the gods and the effect that they have on the people.”

“It’s home to gods, the previous incarnation was stone and gold.” Hennah continued. “So we stayed with those elements and we’ve stayed with the champions of the architecture to a degree, but also we had this sort of human level of single story, two stories, three stories.”

What do you think of this original look at Thor‘s Asgard? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on digital platforms, DVD, and Blu-ray. Ant-Man and the Wasp is in theaters now. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019; and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.