Mark Ruffalo Likens Thor: Ragnarok To A “Universal Road Movie”

Outside of the rather hilarious sucker punch from Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, the fraught relationship between Chris Hemsworth’s Norse God and Mark Ruffalo’s hulking green rage monster hasn’t necessarily been given the screentime it deserves up until now. That’s all set to change with the release of Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, which seems to be aligning itself more with a comedic road movie with each passing day.

Taika Waititi is the director guiding the much-anticipated threequel into production, and though it’s still early days before we lay eyes on any promo material, Ruffalo has offered up some new details regarding the angle that Waititi and Marvel are taking with Ragnarok.

By their very definition, Thor and Hulk are one of the oddest odd couples among Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and that’s a chemistry that Thor: Ragnarok will champion all throughout its running time. When quizzed about the dynamic driving Waititi’s galactic threequel, here’s what Ruffalo had to share about the pair’s upcoming trip across the Nine Realms.

“There’s a little bit of Midnight Run, with [Charles] Grodin and [Robert] De Niro,” Ruffalo told Empire. “I feel like that’s kind of where we’re heading with this relationship between Thor and Banner.” So is it a road movie? “It is a universal road movie – that’s where we’re heading,” he says, adding cryptically: “It’s not where you’d think it will be, so it’s not your classic road movie but it has that structure, I think.”

Bringing something new to a tried and tested formula is something we’ve seen before in the MCU, most notably with the ways in which Joe and Anthony Russo infused Captain America: The Winter Soldier with many of the stylistic tendencies of a 70s espionage thriller. Could Ragnarok follow in its footsteps? It certainly seems so. Heck, according to Ruffalo, his chemistry with Hemsworth helped nudge Marvel towards more comedic territory (relatively speaking) with the 2017 actioner.

“I love Chris [Hemsworth], and it’s not an accident that we’ve been put together because we have a good time together and we goof off. The fact that we’re moving towards the smart-comedic bent plays into our relationship.” And Banner will be heading to Asgard. “[Am I looking forward to that?] Hells, yeah.”

Thor: Ragnarok has been slated for November 3, 2017.