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How Drax Inspired Thor’s Radical New Look In Avengers: Infinity War

Turns out Drax's space pirate comment had a major influence on the look and design of Thor leading up to Avengers: Infinity War.

“It’s like a pirate had a baby with an angel.”

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Turns out that comment, while hilarious, helped inspire the overall look of Thor’s costume during Avengers: Infinity War. Or so says Ryan Meinerding, Head of Visual Development at Marvel Studios, who was interviewed as part of the recently-released ‘Art of the Movie’ book for Infinity War.

As expected, it’s packed to the rafters with little MCU tidbits – be it a candid interview with head honcho Kevin Feige or swathes of concept art dedicated to Thanos, the greatest Marvel Studios villain ever conceived. But now, the spotlight has turned towards the God of Thunder himself, whose radical redesign was partly inspired by Drax’s “space pirate” comment. Allow Meinerding to explain:

Who Thor was going to be in this movie actually took quite a bit of exploration, [we] could have gone in a lot of different directions. Drax describes him as an angel mixed with a pirate, that sort of space-pirate look is where we started gaining some traction — where it wasn’t necessarily a king-ly look.

It’s a fascinating piece of insight into the goings-on at Marvel’s creative departments, where powerhouses like Meinerding ponder over the look and design of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Looking ahead to Avengers 4 and there are plenty of new evolutions to get excited about, too – chief among them being Clint Barton/Hawkeye, who was sorely missed from Joe and Anthony Russo’s $2 billion dollar success story. Just imagine Drax’s comment(s) about Hawkeye!

Meanwhile, Avengers: Infinity War is available across all the usual platforms, and if you’ve somehow missed out on Marvel’s biggest ever mash-up, now is the time to play catch-up, as the first Avengers 4 teaser reveal is seemingly right around the corner.