8 Ways That Thor: Ragnarok Sets Up Future MCU Movies

The New King Of Asgard

Once Thor and Loki track Odin down to the fields of Norway, they’re able to learn the truth about their evil sister Hela just before Odin dies. In his absence, Hela takes her father’s place as ruler of Asgard, with her sights set on taking over the rest of the universe. By the end of the movie, of course, she’s defeated, and can you guess who takes over the throne?

Yes, it’s Thor – and he immediately gets a makeover to ensure he looks more like his old pops. During his battle with Hela, the Thunder God loses an eye (something cleverly edited out from certain shots in the trailers). The last time we see him, he’s wearing an eyepatch and looking very Odin-like as he becomes king.

As much as Ragnarok gleefully chucks out a lot of the continuity with the first two films, this feels like a natural completion of Thor’s arc that began back in 2011’s outing. He started off as a war-hungry prince who couldn’t wait to be king and now he’s a much wiser warrior who must take the throne with a heavy heart.

On a purely superficial level, though, is Thor always going to be without his eye? From what we’ve seen of Avengers: Infinity War, that doesn’t seem to be the case. He is a god, after all, so his eye could grow back. But then why didn’t that work for Odin?

Asgardians On Earth

The first thing Thor does as the new king of Asgard is decree that he’s going to take his people to Earth, suggesting that they’re going to be making a new home on what’s already Thor’s second favourite planet. But how is this going to work and when will it be explored in a future movie?

First of all, this is drawn from a story arc in the comics. After Loki brought about Ragnarok (which he kind of does here, too), Thor decides that Asgard is a people not a planet and builds his subjects a new home in the most modest environment of Broxton, Oklahoma. On the page, this arc led into the Siege storyline – featuring Norman Osborn and his supervillain Cabal attacking the new Asgard.

Taika Waititi is already talking about how he’s game for directing Thor 4, so if that’s officially given the greenlight – and it no doubt will as long as Chris Hemsworth is still in – then we can expect the “Asgardians on Earth” arc to be explored in that movie, which will probably arrive in the first couple of years of Phase Four.