With director Taika Waititi and his cast (including Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and the iconic Jeff, uh, Goldblum) in tow, Marvel brought Thor: Ragnarok to Comic-Con's Hall H. And they had a new trailer to share.
With Waititi on typically funny form (chastising "some" of his actors for not learning his lines and practically inciting and international incident between Australia and New Zealand), the panel was a lot of fun.
We actually learned a few new nuggets about the characters – Goldblum's Grandmaster, for example, is an ancient being (he's been around since just after the Big Bang) and is actually the brother of the Collector, as played by Benicio Del Toro in Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Loki, meanwhile – and yes, Tom Hiddleston got a typically wild reaction from the audience – has been on the throne for a few years (pretending to be Odin), and Asgard under his reign has not exactly been flourishing. "He's still the God of Mischief", says the actor. But he'll be needed when Cate Blanchett's Hela attacks; witness the shot of Thor and Loki holding what look like Asgardian machine guns in the trailer.
And then there's the Hulk. In the time since Age Of Ultron, the big green guy has decided he's sick of turning back into puny Banner. And in his perma-Hulk status (it doesn't last forever, despite that description), he can talk with the vocabulary of, according to Ruffalo, a two year old.
In addition to the footage, we saw Thor's first meeting with Goldblum's Grandmaster, following what looks for all the world like he's been strapped to a car trundling round an Epcot tour of the planet Sakaar. We could swear there was some Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory in the music. That is followed a great scene with Goldblum, Rachel House (Hunt For The Wilderpeople's Paula, described by Waititi as "my lucky charm") playing Topaz and Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie in which insults are swapped. And Thor is packed off to a holding area that is also some sort of weird circular space-loop room. There, he meets Korg (performance captured and voiced by Waititi) a giant rock creature ("but don't that intimidate you") with the build of a mountain and the voice of a sweet-natured Polynesian bouncer, which is where the director took his inspiration. Korg's there because he tried to foment revolution, but failed to print enough pamphlets and nobody showed up. It's an absolutely Waititi moment in the middle of a big Marvel movie.
All in all, Ragnarok is shaping up to be something truly special; lightyears away from The Dark World. 27 October can't come fast enough.