Marvel concept artist Aleksi Briclot has shared early concept art for Thor: Ragnarok that shows a radically different design for Thor's gladiator armor. In the movie, an altercation with his long-lost sister sends Thor crashing down to the planet of Sakaar, where he is almost immediately enslaved and forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena. To add insult to injury, some weird old guy even cuts off his long, beautiful hair.

Once Marvel movies are out in theaters and all their secrets have been revealed, the studio's concept artists are usually pretty generous with sharing early designs for characters. Led by Andy Park and Ryan Meinerding, the Marvel Studios Visual Development come up with many different options for characters before the filmmakers decide on the look they like the best. A tie-in book, The Art of Thor: Ragnarok, was released last year.

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Thor's final look for his showdown with the Hulk was a fairly plan suit of armor and a winged helmet, but he could have looked very different. Briclot shared some other designs on his Instagram feed, which he explains were inspired by legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby (a style that Waititi specifically requested).

With its comedic tone, strong color palette and excellent soundtrack, Thor: Ragnarok is regarded by many fans as the best movie in the franchise, and one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe overall. Star Chris Hemsworth certainly has a lot of enthusiasm for it, saying that after Ragnarok he felt "a renewed sense of excitement and enthusiasm." Ragnarok was the final solo Thor movie on Hemsworth's contract, but it may just have convinced him to come back for more. "If I had the opportunity to do it again, I think I’d love to," Hemsworth admitted. "I also think there’s an appetite for it now, or there’s a far greater range of possibilities of where he can go now... because we’ve kind of broken the mold a bit."

If Ragnarok was Hemsworth's last Thor solo movie, however, at least it was a good one. It's well worth taking a look through Briclot's Instagram feed to see other pieces of concept art from the movie. Thor's reluctant ally Valkyrie also had some incredibly different designs in the early stages of development, including one suit of armor that came with an enormous winged helmet. Maybe she can wear that one in a future movie.

More: Ragnarok Truly Did Save The Thor Franchise

Source: Aleksi Briclot (via Cinema Blend)