With Universal Pictures currently holding the production rights to a sequel to the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk, Marvel Studios cannot use the character in a solo movie without Universals involvement (similar to the forthcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming). However, as with the web-crawlers appearance in last year's Captain America: Civil War, Marvel Studios are free to use the character as part of an ensemble movie or within another characters movie. This option, combined with the popularity of the Marvel animated movie Planet Hulk has seen Marvel Studios adapt the aforementioned animated movie into Thor's third outing - after being defeating by Hela (Cate Blanchett) Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finds himself held captive on the planet Sakaar where he must emerge victorious in a gladiatorial duel against the champion, his old friend the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
Though commercially successful the previous two Thor movies haven't quite lived up to the potential of the intellectual property, its character or Hemsworth's capacity as a leading actor, with British actor Tom Hiddleston outperforming his co-star in both previous movies. With Ruffalo and Blanchett joining the cast along with Jeff Goldblum, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban and Sam Neill (in an undisclosed role) Thor Ragnarok should follow behind this May's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as Marvel Studios continues to dominate the comic book movie genre.
Thor Ragnarok smashes into theaters November 3rd, 2017.
