Just please don't pull the "we cast great actors as our villains and then don't give them much to do or give their characters much interesting characterization" thing that Marvel has done WAY too often in the past.
Yep. I have a lot of faith that with the people involved in this film they will hopefully do justice by the character of Hela, and by the always amazing Cate Blanchett. I find it encouraging that a lot of the early media push for this movie has involved and been focused on the villain which, as far as I'm aware, is fairly unusual for an MCU movie to date.
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If you notice, at no point during Thor: Ragnarok's marketing so far has Hela been described by Marvel or any of the actors as being the 'Asgardian' Goddess of Death, but rather as the Goddess of Death. So maybe it stands to reason that within the MCU, Hela doesn't just govern the dead of the Nine Realms, but rather the entire universe, which of course makes her quite a lot more powerful than 616 Hela.
If we go by this argument, it makes Hela just as powerful (or if not maybe more so) than Odin himself. So just maybe, within the MCU, Odin and Hela are actually opposites of each other, two sides of the same coin. Where Odin is the 'Sky Father' and the King of Asgard which has already been described in the MCU as being the 'protector' of the universe (in the first Thor movie I believe), Hela is the Queen of the Underworld and the ruler of the universe's dead. It would also mean that in the MCU, the realm of Hel is not just the realm of the Asgardian dead, but the realm of all of the dead. We have absolutely no evidence in the MCU to date that the other pantheons that exist in the comics universe (such as Hercules, Zeus and the Greek/Roman pantheon) also exist, so Hela being the Death Goddess of the entire universe doesn't really pose an issue. All this and how Hela eventually came to be imprisoned could be explained pretty easily in a short prologue to Thor: Ragnarok, which is where the Thor series has traditionally introduced the villain and the background to the main conflict in the movie.
So if we go by all that above, it could be argued that Thanos and Hela's first 'meeting' could indeed be very similar to his first encounter with Death in the original comics, which has never actually been fully explained. Thanos, being a nihilist and obsessed with the concept of death (just like his comics counterpart) falls madly in love with Hela, the goddess and ruler of the dead, and is willing do anything to capture her attention and her love and approval in return. Meanwhile, Hela has been causing chaos in the universe because she has been trying to fix the life/death balance which she feels has become off kilter and so begins an epic battle of control between her and Odin who eventually manages to defeat her by trapping her soul within the Soul Stone. Thanos hears of this and enraged wants to release his love from her prison, but knows he has to bide his time because he doesn't have a hope of defeating Odin and the entirety of Asgard without an army behind him.
And so begins Thanos' epic millenia long quest to gain power, build an army, release Hela from her prison (which he helps instigate during the events of Ragnarok because of Odin's sudden absence), gather the Infinity Stones and then prove his love and devotion to Hela by wiping out half the universe and 'correcting' the imbalance that she (and by extension he) feels exists.
Again, the connection and history between Thanos and Hela could easily be explained at some point in Ragnarok, seeing as many people believe that Thanos may have a brief appearance in that movie anyway. Then it's already established and they're good to go when Infinity War rolls around.
Someone I follow on tumblr posted a really cool theory today about how Hela could potentially be used as a replacement for Death in the MCU. I thought I'd post it here because, as a huge fan of both the character of Hela and of course of Cate Blanchett, I'd personally love this to happen:
Just a reminder to some, this is a theory, pure speculation. No one is saying this is actually going to happen before anyone kicks off.![]()
Yeah some of this would have had to happen earlier than the first Avengers since the one Mid Credit showing him obviously already interested in death lolSomeone I follow on tumblr posted a really cool theory today about how Hela could potentially be used as a replacement for Death in the MCU. I thought I'd post it here because, as a huge fan of both the character of Hela and of course of Cate Blanchett, I'd personally love this to happen:
Just a reminder to some, this is a theory, pure speculation. No one is saying this is actually going to happen before anyone kicks off.![]()
I think that we can all agree that trying to conquer the universe in the name of Cate Blanchett is totally understandable.![]()
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/thor-ragnarok-cate-blanchett-took-inspiration-from-cosplayers-for-helas-look-123047685.htmlWhen I was starting to think about how she might look, I went back to the fanbase, said Blanchett, who recently spoke to Yahoo. All these girls were doing Hela makeup looks on YouTube. I thought about what their takes on her were. I spoke to Marvel about what she would look like when she would be unmasked, so she wasnt a faceless, generic baddie. They were very open to everything.
I didnt realize until I got on the set that this is the first Marvel film incarnation of a female villain. What decade are we in? It was shocking to me. The character they created is ballsy and front-footed.
Definitely. I'll probably be rooting for Thanos in IW is he is really doing it all to impress Hela.
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She's so beautiful.![]()
If that does end up being the case I'll be rootin' with ya.t:
And I'll tell you that when I first started meeting with the Thor team about Hela, they wanted her to wear a mask the whole time.
No! She's too cool for that.
Well, Morag and I had gone on YouTube and found all these incredible Hela makeup looks that women all over the world had done, as fans. They showed her face, and they imagined it was sort of necrotized, and it was so powerful. So I said, "Don't you want to know what she looks like without her mask? Isn't that more interesting?" And Morag did such an incredible job with the makeup that I think you'll get to see the character's face a lot more.
What does the goddess of death get to wear?
Morag worked a lot with iridescent powders and veins in the faceI mean, she's the goddess of death. She has to look striking, obviously.
She's also got some serious after-party eyeliner happening.
Good, that's what we were going for! I mean, she's been locked in a closet for millennia.
Maybe she could be in a scene with Red Skull who has long elf hair.
Red Skull, Ronan the Accuser and Hela start up a metal band called 'Elves Gone Bad' wearing long wigs and pointy ear prosthetics.