Before you watch Taika Waititi’s hotly anticipated Thor: Ragnarok, you might want to know how it connects up with the much-loved Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Prior to this film, Thor’s solo adventures mostly took place between Earth and Asgard, with the occasional sojourn to another of The Nine Realms (e.g. Jotunheim, the icy locale where Loki was born). The weirder depths of the Marvel cosmic universe have been reserved for James Gunn’s Guardians movies, up to now.
However, that’s all going to change with Ragnarok, which sees Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder stripped of his hammer, and his hair, before being dumped on the junkyard planet of Sakaar. As strange and surreal as anything in Guardians of the Galaxy, or its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Sakaar is about as far removed as you can get from Thor’s home comforts of Asgard and Earth. In terms of the worlds being explored, then, Ragnarok feels like it exists in the same oddball universe as Guardians, which you couldn’t really say about the previous Thor movies.
Related: Thor's Human Characters Weren't Considered For Ragnarok
That's not the only connection, either. Screen Rant has teamed up with Regal Cinemas to put together an informative preview video, which will fill you in on how Thor: Ragnarok and the Guardians of the Galaxy films link up (see above). The number of connections may surprise you.
Indeed, as you can see in the video, Thor: Ragnarok has more Guardians connections than you might expect, considering that it hasn’t been advertised as an overt crossover flick featuring Star-Lord and his team of a-holes. For example, Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster - the ruler of Sakaar - is, in fact, the brother of Benicio del Toro’s Collector, who was seen in Guardians of the Galaxy and an end credits scene from Thor: The Dark World. The links here aren’t just tonal, then; they are also familial. There are a lot more links to be found in that video, too.
However, thanks to the Avengers: Infinity War footage that screened at San Diego Comic-Con earlier in the year, fans already know that Thor won’t cross paths with the Guardians during Ragnarok. That footage, from next year’s big Avengers movie, saw Thor bumping – quite literally – into the Guardians, for the first time, in the middle of deep space.
While fans wait in anticipation for Avengers: Infinity War, which is bound to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe feel like a very connected place, Thor: Ragnarok lays some important groundwork. The idea of an Asgardian god teaming up with a talking raccoon won't seem so ridiculous after Ragnarok, which pushes Thor into weirder territory than ever, and hints at some major connections between his franchise and that of the Guardians.
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