Thor: Ragnarok Director Reveals How The Film References Planet Hulk

The Marvel Cinematic Universe will visit “Planet Hulk,” both the literal planet of Sakaar and the storyline that made the planet, in Thor: Ragnarok this November.

However, director Taika Waititi says that wasn’t always his goal. Waititi was just looking to put a bit of himself into the third Thor movie and ended up leaning into the fan-favorite Hulk tale.

“I was just trying to inject my tone and sensibility into it, and then those guys who actually know the comics came in and were like, ‘Let’s just push it in this direction back here,’” Waititi tells IGN. “Korg and Miek, who are two characters from ‘Planet Hulk,’ there’s that stuff.”

As with any adaptation, there are also differences as well.

“One difference is we have the Grandmaster ruling Sakaar instead of the Red King, and so there’s those things, but I don’t really pay that much attention to it,” Waititi says. “I’m trying to create cool characters and tone and story instead of it has to be totally authentic to the comic because I think that’s when you run into trouble when you can’t be creatively free to adjust things.”

“Planet Hulk” was a storyline that ran in the pages of The Incredible from 2006 through 2007. The storyline was written by Greg Pak and drawn by Carlo Pagulayan and Aaron Lopresti. The story began when the Illuminati, many of whom were Bruce Banner’s friend, shot the Hulk into space. He then landed on the planet Sakaar and was thrust into a gladiatorial arena.

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 readers. Let us know how excited you are for Thor: Ragnarok by giving the movie your own personal ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating below.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok – the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization – at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger – The Incredible Hulk!

Thor: Ragnarok is directed by Taika Waititi from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, and Anthony Hopkins.

Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters on November 3, 2017.

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