Thor: Ragnarok Artist Reveals Unused Designs for Hela’s Minions

Hela (Cate Blanchett) briefly ruled over Asgard with an army of the undead — zombie-like Asgardians that had previously lived in the tombs beneath the mystical realm. The minions nearly looked much different, with one new piece of concept art painting the characters as a mix of Frost Giants and Ultron. Marvel concept artist Ian Joyner shared the concept work on his Twitter Monday evening, showing what appears to be a fine mix between bio-organic and technologically-based designs.

Being Hela is the Asgardian Goddess of Death, she was able to reanimate the dead Asgardians to use at her will. That also included the resurrection Fenrir, a massive wolf rooted in Norse mythology. Despite being released over two years now, concept art from the flick continues surfacing; earlier this month, some Hulk concept art found its way to the light.

Ragnarok is one of Marvel’s highest-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes, still carrying a 93 percent Certified Fresh rating. Director Taika Waititi previously attributed the movie’s success to Marvel’s “relentless pursuit” of a good movie.

“We don’t know. That comics run was a big inspiration, and was an influence on the first few drafts,” Waititi said of the plans behind his next Marvel flick, Thor: Love and Thunder. “But at Marvel, we always change everything. I could say one thing right now, and in two years, it will be the complete opposite — or that thing won’t exist. We continue writing even in post-production.”

He added, “We test the film. We shot for two weeks on Thor [Ragnarok] with our pickups. There were huge, huge character changes, huge story changes. We reshot entire scenes. I think that’s why they do good work. They’re relentless in their pursuit of just a good movie.”

Despite being one of Hollywood’s biggest filmmakers now, especially after winning an Academy Award for his work on Jojo Rabbit, Waititi is returning to helm and co-write Thor: Love and Thunder, a flick in which he’s also expected to reprise his role as the alien Korg.

Thor: Ragnarok is now streaming on Disney+.

Where would you rank Hela at amongst your MCU villains? Think it over and let us know your thoughts in the comments!