The opening seconds of Thor: Ragnarok make it abundantly clear that this is not going to be like the previous two Thor films. It really can’t be overstated how much of a comedy this is, and director Taika Waititi reshapes the franchise into something that aligns with his storytelling sensibilities. That means that certain elements or characters from previous movies are treated differently than in prior movies, and such is the case with the Warriors Three, Asgardian soldiers played by Zachary Levi (Fandral), Tadanobu Asano (Hogun), and Ray Stevenson (Volstagg). (Levi took over for original Fandral actor Joshua Dallas, who’s pictured above.)
Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige addressed the treatment of those characters in a new interview, and you can read his spoilery Thor Ragnarok Warriors Three comments below.
Again, spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen the film yet.
When Cate Blanchett‘s Hela dispatches with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and returns to Asgard, she immediately kills Volstagg and Fandral by conjuring blades out of thin air and impaling them. Hogun is killed soon after in a similar manner, and the whole thing has a rather unceremonious feel to it. To me it read as a statement from Waititi and his writers: Hey, you know those peripheral characters? We don’t need ’em, because this is a whole new thing.
Feige says it was more to do with setting up Hela’s character than anything else. Via ScreenRant:
“Well, it was a – they, they had noble ends – mainly to serve the arrival of Hela, the arrival of the biggest villain into the MCU, who within the first five minutes destroys the hammer, kicks Loki and Thor out of Asgard, and kills almost anyone we’ve ever met before in the other movies. Which is really – we want it to start with a bang.”
Feige later said of the Warriors Three that “they will be remembered,” but when might that happen? Hopefully not in Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers 4, because don’t you think there will be enough going on those films without one of its key heroes pausing to mourn his dead friends? And a fourth Thor movie hasn’t been announced yet – Marvel has stuck with trilogies for its solo characters thus far and haven’t broken that trend yet – so it’s unclear when the God of Thunder will have time to remember his fallen compatriots.
Hey, at least Jaimie Alexander’s Lady Sif wasn’t abruptly killed off. But elsewhere, Feige hinted that the character will return in another movie, so maybe she’ll be one of the lower-tier characters that the Russo Brothers plan to flesh out a little more in Avengers: Infinity War.
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