RAGNAROK Is a STUPID Idea For THOR 3!

As you most ardent of fanboys know, yesterday Marvel announced that Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost will tackled the screenplay for Thor 3 (rumored to be Thor 3 Ragnarok). We were always pretty certain that an Odinson Trilogy was one of Marvel’s many goals, but now this bit of news confirms that we’re moving on to a third flick.

Well, according to the recent geek gossip, Thor Tres might adapt the classic Norse Ragnarok myth to the big screen, which is a stupid, stupid, STUPID idea.

For those of you not familiar with Ragnarok, it literally translates to “Twilight of the Gods”. In the very fatalistic Norse mythology every god, creature, and man understands that the universe will end and be reborn in a final war. During that time, the Fenrir, the massive wolf, will break free from his bounds and join both Frost giants and Surtur as they attack Asgard. And everyone dies. For the most part, that is. A human or two (or godling or two, depending on which Edda you read) survives and rebuilds the world.

Thor fights the world serpent Jormungand

That sounds pretty badass. The war to end all wars. The last fight for the world. And that’s all cool if we’re talking about a very finite set of stories, which is an accurate description of Norse Mythology. Nobody ran around scripting sequels to Ragnarok.

But they totally did in the comics. Ragnarok has been featured, by my count, 3 separate times in the past 20 years, and that’s in name only. Marvel’s created a dozen other “War to end all Wars” stories with the same sense of finality as Ragnarok during that same time period. And guess what? If you create sequels to a story that’s supposed to be the very end, you undermine the entire project. Then, if you create a handful of equally massive events, you cheapen it even more.

So why do that so early in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Again, they’ve already created analogues of the Ragnarok tale with “Universe Ending” threats in other films, like Thor: The Dark World and The Avengers, but nothing that’s explicitly the “Twilight” of existence.

If Marvel Studios is so eager to create Ragnarok in Thor 3, they’d have to end the franchise then and there. That is, without question, the END of Thor. Sure, in the comics, they resurrected him a few times, but it absolutely cheapened the depth of that hammer slinging deity. I don’t think film goers would be as forgiving as we few faithful fanboys who are comfortable (but still salty) with resurrections.

Unless, of course, Marvel is hoping to recast Chris Hemsworth. Then a Ragnarok flick would be the perfectly into their little scheme, but through that logic, they’d have to adapt Ragnarok every time one of their actors is finished with a role. Simply said, there are easier ways to recast a role. Just look at James Bond.

Save Ragnarok for… never. It’s really tired story that only has one redeemable feature: finality. But this is the comic book movie industry, after all, and finality is not their strong suit.