Cate Blanchett is the Mysterious & Powerful Villainess HELA! - Part 1

[Finarfiniel]

Okay, I've just seen the movie for the third time and holy crap, I think ZenTheAvenger and helamazing might be onto something...

Spoiler

I paid really close attention to Hela's big final battle with Surtur and she is standing on the end of one of those giant spikes that she conjured out of the ground. Directly after the shot of her looking up all 'Oh, crap' when she sees that Surtur is about to plunge his sword into the ground, the shot changes to a wide shot where we see the whole of Surtur and you can just about see a really small Hela standing on the spike, but just before Surtur ends it all there is a fairly noticeable sudden flash of green smoky stuff where Hela is standing. It's really, really easy to miss if you're not looking directly at it (which most won't be, they'll be looking at Surtur), but it definitely happens. Holy ****, maybe she did just teleport away??

 

[Finarfiniel]

Not yet. I wont until friday or Saturday

I hope you come and post your thoughts after. t:

She was fantastic. I don't think her screen time was a problem. I would gladly have taken more since it was a great character, but I think that Cate got everything across that she needed to for the story.

Yep. I was a little bummed out about her screen time at first, but I feel better about it now. I just wish she was in the middle of the film a little more, there's way too big of a gap without her gloriousness at one stage.

I'm pleased to see that she's still going over really well on social media from the reactions, I love searching for Cate and Hela to see what everyone is saying. t:

Hela; probably the best out and out villain in the MCU. Of course, Cate Blanchett is always great value. #ThorRagnarok

Cate Blanchett thrives as @Marvel’s first ever main female villain in the #MCU. Taika Waititi an inspired choice as director. #ThorRagnarok

It would be sinful if I didn't talk about how fierce and glorious Cate Blanchett is as #Hela I WOULD KNEEL BEFORE HER ANYTIME! #ThorRagnarok

Just watch Thor Ragnarok and as per usual cate blanchett slayyyy..it becomes a guilty pleasure that i’m rooting a villain

Cate Blanchett was truly a goddess. She was ****ing incredible in #ThorRagnarok

I LOVED THOR RAGNAROK SO MUCH I WANT CATE BLANCHETT TO CRUSH MY SKULL AND SEND ME TO MY GRAVE

And despite her being a villain, I freaking love Cate Blanchett a.k.a. Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. From the black hair, to the way she speaks

Cate Blanchett's performance as #Hela in #ThorRagnarok was breathtaking! She really set the bar high. She's the best MCU villain for me.

#ThorRagnarok is a visual spectacle, really funny and entertaining. Cate Blanchett as Hela and Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie are my favorites.

AND LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW CATE BLANCHETT BASICALLY OWNED HER ROLE AS HELA & WAS SO REGAL IN DOING SO I COULD JUST BOW DOWN THEN AND THERE

I've known Cate Blanchett since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy when I was a kid and seeing her as Hela in Thor: Ragnarok is just wow

#ThorRagnarok is the best Thor movie, period. Cate Blanchett's performance as Hela was impressive.

Cate Blanchett is one badass villain. She is lit af in #ThorRagnarok The best villian in Marvel yet.

Can't believe how young and fierce Cate Blanchett looks in Thor Ragnarok. She's the best villain ever in Marvel.

#Thor was a lot of fun. Very funny at times but also had it’s darker moments. Would recommend to see on the larger screen due to the colours and the sound. Cate Blanchett OWNS it and being Marvel it ties in extremely well with the rest of the MCU. Would give it 3.75 stars.

#CateBlanchett had a lot of fun as Hela. She was great. And she almost fixes Marvel's villain issue #ThorRagnarok

In other news I saw #ThorRagnarok and wow! It's funny!! The CGI is great and it has such a different feel to it! Cate Blanchett=GODDESS!

Cate Blanchett in #ThorRagnarok was everything I needed and more

On a side note I've fallen in love with Cate Blanchett. She was an amazing Hela. Shame there's not enough of her in the movie.

Thor: Ragnarok review — cate blanchett is ****ing killing it (quite literally) & I'll gladly kneel before my (one & only) queen

 

[Nathaniell]

Question though...by the end of the film...does it leave the door open for her to appear in the mcu later on??

 

[Finarfiniel]

Question though...by the end of the film...does it leave the door open for her to appear in the mcu later on??

Putting it behind a cut, but it's not majorly spoilery other than answering your question.

Spoiler

Very much so, the ending is thankfully very ambiguous.

 

[Batmannerism]

I hope you come and post your thoughts after. t:



Yep. I was a little bummed out about her screen time at first, but I feel better about it now. I just wish she was in the middle of the film a little more, there's way too big of a gap without her gloriousness at one stage.

I'm pleased to see that she's still going over really well on social media from the reactions, I love searching for Cate and Hela to see what everyone is saying. t:

Cate Blanchett is always great, but she kicked it up a notch for this role.
I mean it's not an Oscar winning role, but boy she was probably Marvel's best villain to date -

Spoiler

loved that speech about executioners.

She was baaaaaddd. I love it when a villain feels like a legitimate threat - which makes us forget that the hero will probably win in the end. From the

Spoiler

moment she first appeared and crushed Thor's hammer

you knew she was going to be like the Wicked Witch of the west on steroids but about a million times cooler.

It was like she was playing the opposite of her Lord of the Rings character.

 

[Iceman]

Yeah, she's the best MCU villain IMO.

And she has potential for much more if they choose to use her in future films.

 

[Wildcard]

Putting it behind a cut, but it's not majorly spoilery other than answering your question.

Spoiler

Very much so, the ending is thankfully very ambiguous.

Excellent!

 

[Finarfiniel]

Cate Blanchett is always great, but she kicked it up a notch for this role.
I mean it's not an Oscar winning role, but boy she was probably Marvel's best villain to date -

Spoiler

loved that speech about executioners.

She was baaaaaddd. I love it when a villain feels like a legitimate threat - which makes us forget that the hero will probably win in the end. From the

Spoiler

moment she first appeared and crushed Thor's hammer

you knew she was going to be like the Wicked Witch of the west on steroids but about a million times cooler.

It was like she was playing the opposite of her Lord of the Rings character.

It's become a bit of a meme on social media that Hela is basically what would have happened to Galadriel if she had taken the One Ring from Frodo. t:

There's a couple of scenes in Ragnarok where Hela is explaining the history of Asgard and she sounds so much like Galadriel narrating the opening of LotR in those scenes that it gave me a warm, nostalgic glow.

Spoiler

The executioner scene made me laugh because of Cate's awesome delivery, I love how they managed to make Hela both funny and threatening at the same time. "When I was child, all great rulers had an Executioner. Not just to execute people, but also to execute their vision. But mainly to... execute people."

Yeah, she's the best MCU villain IMO.

And she has potential for much more if they choose to use her in future films.

Are you listening, Lord Feige and the Marvel Studios Overlords? We demand more Hela!

 

[Frankeh]

Amazing villain, best MCU villain for sure.

A truly formidable threat.

 

[Gieferg]

Spoiler

Hela can certainly teleport in the comics (it's kinda important for being the Goddess of Death, she has to get anywhere in the Nine Realms quickly to collect her souls), but there was no indication of her being able to do it in the movie.

And her first scene?

 

[Finarfiniel]

Amazing villain, best MCU villain for sure.

A truly formidable threat.

And her first scene?

Yes, I've changed my position since that post.

Spoiler

I realise now that of course she can teleport, otherwise what else is she doing in her first scene? She appears out of nowhere in a cloud of what is clearly some kind of magical energy. On earth too, not on Asgard, so that hints that she can do it anywhere. So that only strengthens the argument that she teleported away in the final battle because why would any being that has the ability to teleport just stand there and take it when a gigantic fire demon is about to bring his bigass sword down on your head? Honestly, the film makes it kinda obvious that she likely survived that ending, but it's easy to brush over because the only time we actually see Hela teleporting anywhere is right at the beginning and then we don't ever see her do it again, not onscreen anyway.

 

[TheVileOne]

I loved Blanchett as Hela, but her backstory is a little convoluted and it just needed a bit more texture. Her entrance is a bit too abrupt and quick.

IMHO there needed to be a quick prologue like at the beginning of Avengers to show Hela awakening or her powers increasing to return back into the world.

 

[helamazing]

Yes, I've changed my position since that post.

Spoiler

I realise now that of course she can teleport, otherwise what else is she doing in her first scene? She appears out of nowhere in a cloud of what is clearly some kind of magical energy. On earth too, not on Asgard, so that hints that she can do it anywhere. So that only strengthens the argument that she teleported away in the final battle because why would any being that has the ability to teleport just stand there and take it when a gigantic fire demon is about to bring his bigass sword down on your head? Honestly, the film makes it kinda obvious that she likely survived that ending, but it's easy to brush over because the only time we actually see Hela teleporting anywhere is right at the beginning and then we don't ever see her do it again, not onscreen anyway.

yes!!! i agree with you.

Spoiler

there's this super fast green flash before surtur hit her. but the orangey color is just more dominant...

keep an eye on the last scene

 

[Finarfiniel]

I loved Blanchett as Hela, but her backstory is a little convoluted and it just needed a bit more texture. Her entrance is a bit too abrupt and quick.

IMHO there needed to be a quick prologue like at the beginning of Avengers to show Hela awakening or her powers increasing to return back into the world.

I agree, I said as much in the spoiler thread. A proper intro to Hela with flashbacks like we had one to the Frost Giants in the first Thor and Malekith in TDW would have gone a long way to fixing the backstory issue.

yes!!! i agree with you.

Spoiler

there's this super fast green flash before surtur hit her. but the orangey color is just more dominant...

keep an eye on the last scene

Yes, I saw exactly the same thing!

Spoiler

I've been talking about it here and elsewhere, but it's so damn quick and small that it's very very easy to miss. I'm going to see the film again in a couple of days so I'll be watching extremely closely in that scene again. Damn, I wish we could pause the film to get a closer look in that scene.

 

[Iceman]

I get to see Cate again soon.

 

[Finarfiniel]

keep an eye on the last scene

*cough*

Spoiler

I knew I wasn't going mad! A poster on tumblr managed to get hold of a cam rip of the film (side note: why on earth do people want to watch cam rips for?? Imagine seeing a film for the first time in such godawful quality, talk about ruining it) and posted screencaps of that final Hela moment before Surtur drives his sword into the ground. Now the picture and colour quality are horrendous so it's nowhere near as clear as it will be once the movie is available in HD, but there's definitely something going on here:

Take into account that this all happens in the space of about 3 seconds in the actual film which is why it's so difficult to catch, but there's a definite sudden flash of green there, and where else could it be coming from but Hela?

So anyway...

 

[Iceman]

Are you listening, Lord Feige and the Marvel Studios Overlords? We demand more Hela!

Any sane person would demand more!

 

[HammerDown]

I hope she is in IW in some capacity. I mean it’s Cate Blanchett.

 

[Finarfiniel]

Now this is very interesting, apparently Hela was originally going to be the villain in TDW instead of Malekith according to Kevin Feige.

I always like hearing about the early development of stuff and where it’s like blue sky ideas and it changes and evolves. How did the vision for this movie evolve?

Feige: Blue sky ideas always started on this film with Hela. We wanted to make Hela the villain. Hela was almost the villain in Thor 2. It didn't happen for various reasons. And thank God it didn't because now we have Cate Blanchett and Taika doing it.

Unfortunately he doesn't expand on the reasons why it was changed, it may have been down to the old Perlmutter school of thinking that a female villain doesn't sell toys or some such crap, but to me this adds fuel to the fire that their plans for Hela in the MCU changed significantly at some point. It's also interesting that Feige hints there that Hela being the villain was pretty much the first thing they decided about Ragnarok. So they decided to change Hela being the villain in TDW to Ragnarok, the film that pretty much runs directly into IW, huh?

 

[Iceman]

More good signs!

 

[Web-Head]

Feel free to vote Hela for MCU's best villain this year! t: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=535647

 

[Finarfiniel]

More good signs!

Yep, there are so many if you keep your eyes open for them. I remember there being rumours that Death as an actual character was originally supposed to feature in Doctor Strange, the concept art of the zealots that was featured in the DS art book seems to verify that. But Doctor Strange went through significant script rewrites at some stage and she seems to have been eventually written out and replaced with Dormammu. Not long before that, Feige is now admitting that they were planning for Hela to be the villain in TDW and then nixed that idea and made her the villain of Ragnarok instead.

This may all just be sheer coincidence, but it seems to me that they originally planned to have Death as a character in the MCU (introduced in DS) in readiness for Infinity War, but then at some point changed their minds and their plans for both TDW and DS to put Hela in that position instead. It just all fits together a little too neatly.

Feel free to vote Hela for MCU's best villain this year! t: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=535647

Thanks, I did. t:

 

[marcoosduarte]

Guys, I'm from Brazil, I'm sorry for my horrible English. But I saw the movie last week and thinking more about it, do not you think the Eternal Flame is an Infinity Stone? I did not see anyone talking about it but could have introduced Hela with the original powers but they decided to present another artifact that does the same thing that soul stone does? I think it makes perfect sense, besides confirming that cate blanchett will return!

 

[Iceman]

Yep, there are so many if you keep your eyes open for them. I remember there being rumours that Death as an actual character was originally supposed to feature in Doctor Strange, the concept art of the zealots that was featured in the DS art book seems to verify that. But Doctor Strange went through significant script rewrites at some stage and she seems to have been eventually written out and replaced with Dormammu. Not long before that, Feige is now admitting that they were planning for Hela to be the villain in TDW and then nixed that idea and made her the villain of Ragnarok instead.

This may all just be sheer coincidence, but it seems to me that they originally planned to have Death as a character in the MCU (introduced in DS) in readiness for Infinity War, but then at some point changed their minds and their plans for both TDW and DS to put Hela in that position instead. It just all fits together a little too neatly.

Maybe when they realised that they had Cate everything changed!

 

[Finarfiniel]

Maybe when they realised that they had Cate everything changed!

Maybe, but I'm not sure. It seems more likely to me that they took the conscious decision to try and cast a big name actress as Hela once they decided to give the character a key role in both Ragnarok and IW, if indeed my theory is correct and that's what is happening here. Cate said in an interview that Marvel directly approached her about the role of Hela and it was her kids that convinced her to do it. If Cate had turned the role down, I imagine Marvel may have gone on to approach other A-list actresses. I do recall reading something about how Charlize Theron was under consideration too. I'm eternally grateful to Cate's kids for convincing her to play Hela though, Marvel never could have cast the role better. t: