At $850 million and counting, Thor: Ragnarok is undoubtedly one of 2017’s bona fide success stories.
It’s also a beautiful and at-times hilarious solo adventure for Marvel’s God of Thunder, who was “blown away” by the film’s reception. Yes, not even Chris Hemsworth expected Ragnarok to perform so well, as the MCU stalwart told Toronto Sun that he was initially floored when Taika Waititi’s cosmic spectacle began to resonate with viewers.
Not only that, but Ragnarok also managed to outperform Justice League at the global box office, which is both a testimony to the Thor 3‘s inherent quality and JL‘s lack thereof. Moreover, the original two Thor movies weren’t exactly landmark releases, as Kenneth Branagh’s solo flicked opened to $449 million in 2011, before The Dark World climbed to $644 million two years later.
The God of Thunder is on the up and up, then, and here’s what Hemsworth had to share about Ragnarok‘s riches:
I wanted it to work so badly and I knew that we left everything on the field, so I had such a positive feeling about our approach to making that movie. There was so much goodwill involved and everyone was willing to try something different and take risks. So there was a great sense of pride that [director] Taika [Waititi] and I felt. The cast and the crew all felt we really went for it and swung for the fences. So, regardless of how it was going to do, I felt very happy with what we did.
Launching Thor: Ragnarok was evidently a team effort that Hemsworth leveraged with the film’s leading cast – namely Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett – and later in the interview, the actor spoke with pride about the Marvel threequel:
But, look, of course I was surprised and happy and blown away by the response. We all wanted that to happen and felt it was something that could happen more so than ever before and when it did, it was incredible.
Ragnarok is a crucial stepping stone on the path to Avengers: Infinity War, too, as the Taika Waititi-directed threequel effectively left the door open for Thanos, whose Sanctuary-2 was seen bearing down on the Asgardian transport ships. It’s an encounter that will presumably place the God of Thunder in the company of Star-Lord and Co., who come across a visibly wounded Thor cast astray in the vacuum of space.
