Fly high, fly proud: Tessa Thompson IS Valkyrie

[jel-leigh-bean]

I'm a bit disappointed that she's not being marketed in her valkyrie armor at all - it's freaking gorgeous - but man I do love those graphics.

 

[MbJ]

Valkyrie in the comics is traditionally the character Brunhilde who comes to be known as Valkyrie… Calling someone ‘Valkyrie’ is like referring to someone as ‘Soldier.’ Our view of the Valkyrie in the MCU is that they were basically Odin’s special ops. His SEAL Team Six. Valkyrie as we meet her in this film has definitely suffered the trauma of war, and we meet her in a really low place.

So it’s not so much that we’re trying to create a one-to-one emulation of Brunhilde from the comics. But certainly, the idea of the Valkyrie and what they mean to Asgard and to Odin is something that we’re going to be leaning into a lot and draft a lot of ideas from the comics.

She’s seeking redemption and she wants to face her fears and… again without giving any spoilers away, it’s the basis of her character. And the fact that she’s here is due in large part to her story with Thor, and Thor getting her to that emotional place.

http://screenrant.com/how-hulk-thor-3-gladiator-planet-explained-2/

 

[Marvel]

"Valkyrie is Thor's hero in THOR: RAGNAROK."

Groan.

Yes, by all means go all SJW ... it's what killed the comic books but hey, let's cast a tiny black woman to be superior to Thor instead of this...

 

[HammerDown]

That description of the Valkyries being "Odin's special ops" is just gold. The same goes with the description of Surtur as a "Mafia kingpin type old-school guy from the age of Odin"...t:

 

[MbJ]

"Valkyrie is Thor's hero in THOR: RAGNAROK."

groan


Yes, by all means go all SJW

It's kind of hilarious that a man admiring and being a fan of a woman is SJWing.

 

[ctsketch]

"Valkyrie is Thor's hero in THOR: RAGNAROK."

Groan.

Yes, by all means go all SJW ... it's what killed the comic books but hey, let's cast a tiny black woman to be superior to Thor instead of this...

What does race have to do any superiority? And wasn't Valkyrie in the comics someone to look up to?

 

[MbJ]

This is also what, the 800th example of an MCU movie changing someone's race? I'm pretty sure we're past the point of people being able to reasonably claim it's gonna somehow kill the movie.

Or maybe I'm just jaded because I remember the first time we had this stupid debate in 2010 when Heimdall was cast. It's like people have no longterm memory.

 

[Mjölnir]

I do kind of feel sad for people that think it's SJW to paint a female character as strong. It just feels like a very complicated relationship to half the population.

 

[Marvel]

It's not race it's just strange/bad casting. I had a friend (non comic book fan) honestly ask me "who is that boy in white in the middle?" when he saw this image...

Don't get me wrong, it may be BAD casting but that's not going to stop me from paying to see this movie three times opening weekend.

 

[Finarfiniel]

It's not race it's just strange/bad casting.

 

[BigThor]

That shot of her jumping off the ship is one.of my favorite shots of the new TV spot.

 

[MbJ]

It's not race

That's news to me given you decided to enter the thread by complaining about Valkyrie being black and accusing Marvel of being SJWs.

 

[ctsketch]

It's not race

then why did you mention race?

 

[HammerDown]

Mark Ruffalo

“It is great that we have Blanchett and Thompson, these two amazing, powerful, strong, beautiful, intelligent women, playing these two important, integral characters in this movie,”

“Then you have Valkyrie, played by Thompson. She is another female presence who didn’t feel welcome. She’s a powerhouse and a brilliant fighter. She’s as equally as powerful as Thor. She’s a warrior. Valkyrie is one of the people who ended up banishing Hela from Asgard. But she’s also lost faith in the patriarchy and the elite power structure,”

http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/mark-ruffalo-happy-to-have-strong-female-actors-in-thor-ragnarok-4838490/

 

[BigThor]

They've been spouting a lot of "Valkyrie is equally as powerful as Thor" leading up to this film and I'm just not buying it.

They talked about how powerful The Warriors Three were and they didn't really do much, none of the Asgardians has besides Thor.

 

[HammerDown]

Collider

Tessa Thompson on Redefining Valkyrie in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

Spoiler

Who is Valkyrie and what’s her role in Thor: Ragnarok?

TESSA THOMPSON: Valkyrie becomes a part of this team. When we meet her, she’s hanging out on another planet called Sakaar and she’s sort of an ex-pat… She’s no longer with her tribe of Valkyrie anymore and she meets Thor & Hulk and she has a similar goal. They become friends and teammates in a way.

What is your research process? Are you looking at Norse mythology or do you look to the Marvel Comics or just the script?

THOMPSON: Both… Norse mythology is mystifying and fantastic and totally confusing, but you can draw a lot of inspiration from it. The exciting thing for us was to create a Valkyrie that is a combination of all those things. If you look at her origin in the comics, sometimes she’s on earth, sometimes she’s in Asgard, sometimes she’s with The Fearless Defenders… It’s all different. So it left us a lot of leeway. The cool thing about working with Taika [Waititi] is he has a healthy respect for the comics but also a total irreverence in the sense that he’s like, ‘Let’s create something new.’ The exciting thing about Thor: Ragnarok is that you get to see even characters that have long been a part of the Marvel cinematic universe shift. We are getting to see a Bruce Banner and a Hulk that we’ve not seen in any of the other movies. Chris has a new haircut. There’s stuff going on with him… All of these characters are fresh and new. And because it was Valkyrie’s introduction, we really had a lot of space to create ‘our’ Valkyrie.

What is Valkyrie’s costume and look in the film?

THOMPSON: There are two [costumes]. In the beginning, when Valkyrie’s on Sakaar, [she’s] closer to the Valkyrie that fans might know from the comics. Then [she changes to a] sort of a classic battle look that is closer to what she would have worn when she was with the other Valkyrie. The designs are incredible. They’re so detailed.

Do you have a British accent in the movie like everyone else seems to or do you get to do your own kind of accent?

THOMPSON: That was a big conversation actually because we were of two minds. When I met Taika and he heard me as Valkyrie, he wanted ‘me’ to play the part. But then you watch the Thor movies, there’s this Asgardian thing that I could not get out of my head. Then you read the source material and anytime Valkyrie speaks it’s in those cool italics — so I’m like, ‘She has an accent!’ And Taika’s like, ‘It doesn’t matter. They won’t care.’ Even Tony Hopkins, who I worked with recently on the show Westworld, was like ‘Oh darling, it doesn’t matter, they’ll be eating popcorn.’ That’s literally what he said to me! But I’m a nerd and I go back to the source material and I’m like, ‘I have to speak in italics.’ I don’t know how else to approach the part. So we [settled] on something that felt like it honors Asgard.

How much input did you have in Valkyrie during the early story process?

THOMPSON: There were a lot of early conversations that I had with Taika about [the part] because you never know. Early on there were conversations, at least in the press, about her being a love interest but you want to also have a character that’s dynamic and does her own thing. But from the jump, Marvel and Taika really wanted Valkyrie to exist in her own plain and to offer something strong and fresh and new. I think they’ve been really smart to answer the call to a lot of fans that we need more women in the universe that are dynamic and not necessarily tied to male characters.

Do you follow the fan reaction, especially with the race [change] of the character?

THOMPSON: It’s a tricky thing cause there’s… I think as an actor there’s this idea sometimes that you just don’t want to read anything, but then when you’re entering this cinematic universe that people are so diehard about, you actually can learn a lot from the fans when you’re doing research. You can learn a lot from the fans, so I didn’t have the thing of like, ‘I’m never going to read anything'; but then when people were posting about the race swap and the implications of that and they were very upset that this doesn’t honor Norse mythology…. if you read Norse mythology, it doesn’t really make sense. And, you know, Idris Elba needs company. He can’t be the only black person in the neighborhood.

Did you and Chris [Hemsworth] compare notes, he having come off Ghostbusters with that horrific backlash?

THOMPSON: Yeah we talked about that. I think the only way to weather [the storm] is to just to do the work. It’s twofold because there’s definitely an element of it where you go, ‘Okay that’s just racism so that’s not cool.’ Then another part of it, I hope, is people being very invested in these stories that they have read and looked at for ages and wanting to see that reflected in the content that they take in. And I can’t be upset about that necessarily. It’s like when they made the On the Road movie, I was just such a nerd for that book as a kid that I couldn’t even watch it. So – I get having a certain reverence. But I also think it’s why it’s important for Marvel to answer the call for inclusion and diversity. What Taika said to the press, which I am happy for, is that they cast a wide net and I was the person that made sense for the part. They saw all kinds of girls, some of them probably looked closer to Valkyrie and some that looked even less like her than I, but I think we just do what we do and we hope that people respond to it and we ignore the ones that don’t.

What’s it like working in front of a blue screen or opposite a guy with a huge Hulk head above his own head?

THOMPSON: A year before [Thor] was even a conversation, I kept saying to myself and anyone that would listen, ‘I want to do something that’s blue or green screen because I think it’s working in a space of such imagination.’ There are funny times though, like the Hulk head… I remember from my very first day, we worked a bunch with him and you just find yourself looking at the guy [instead of the head above]. Now I know what people feel like when they can’t stop looking at someone’s breasts. ‘My face is up here!’ That’s what they kept saying… It’s like parting the curtains and suddenly you get to meet Oz because you watch these films and you’re so invested in the world, but you don’t realize everything that’s involved in it.

Do you get any mo-cap moments?

THOMPSON: I don’t have a mo-cap moments but I did have a really cool moment where I may or may not appear on a horse.

We actually saw a drawing of Pegasus.

THOMPSON: Oh, cool. Yeah – That [shooting] day I was on a big blue sausage. It’s hoisted to this silver thing kind of haphazardly and far above the ground. Not epic at all. Then in comes this incredible horse rider who is on this beautiful stallion and the horse jumps in the air and it’s fantastic and epic. Maybe 15 minutes later they did a composite where suddenly I’m on that horse and I couldn’t believe it… It’s like, ‘Look at me go.’

How much training was there for the stunts?

THOMPSON: It was a lot of training. I made a movie in London just before coming here and I asked if they would give me a swordsperson while I was in London just to begin. So I worked with him. He’s incredible. He worked with Gal Gadot on Wonder Woman. I started to just casually get used to having a sword and it turns out the biggest thing of getting used to having a sword is not losing it. I lose it all the time. I have to ask people — ‘Have you seen my sword?’ You’ve all been there, right?

Why did you want to become part of the Thor-verse?

THOMPSON: One of the reasons I was so excited to be in this film is I remember seeing the first Thor film and being like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a Shakespeare family drama.’ I remember Tom [Hiddleston] telling me when they did the table read of that film, he turned to Kat Dennings when they were done and he was like. “We’re in a completely different movie aren’t we?” I thought there was something so fantastic about the mix of genres. Within the space of the superhero [film], you could do really relatable things like family and what our responsibility is to them…

What was it like working with Cate Blanchett as Marvel’s first major female villain?

THOMPSON: I remember the first time I met Cate, we were both on Stage 3 doing stunt rehearsal. She came by and was like, ‘Oh hi, I’m Cate. I loved you in Creed.’ And I was like, ‘I loved you in everything.’ It’s so tremendous to have someone like her bring on this character and be a villain. I think when we talk about representation, especially about Valkyrie representing a strong female character, as much as we want righteous, fantastic, strong characters, we also want weak ones and bad ones and ****** ones. We want all kinds. Representation means the spectrum. So it’s exciting to me that you can introduce a villain and without giving too much away, she’s not a villain without reason… With an actress like Cate Blanchett, she will bring all of the depth and humanity to it, and to me that’s what’s so exciting. When I saw Civil War, I was like, ‘How cool that you have a superhero movie but it’s about friendship and you really get where these people are coming from.’ That’s what keeps people in the seats.

 

[HammerDown]

ET set visit.

Meet Valkyrie

Who is she? "She's a world-class warrior," Thompson, who starred in Creed and Westworld before joining Marvel's Cinematic Universe, tells us. "When we find her in this film, she's a reluctant hero. She's someone that really gets back into the game with Thor and with the Hulk. And she's just a badass...She's really hardcore. I kick a lot of a**. If fact, I kick a lot of a** on this bridge." (The bridge in question is a set piece glimpsed in the trailer, during a pre-battle standoff featuring Valkyrie, Thor, Loki and Hulk.)

The Valkyrie of the comic books is a swordsmith and leader of the fierce, all-female, winged horse-riding Valkyrior. That Valkyrie, known as Brunnhilde, also happens to be a white woman with blonde hair. "We want to make films that reflect the world that we live in," Thompson states matter-of-factly. "And there are plenty of women that look like Valkyrie, but there are plenty of women that look like me. What was more important for Taika -- and for Marvel in general -- was that they found someone that captured the spirit of Valkyrie. In this case, she happens to look like me."

Will they or won't they? Thompson played far coyer when addressing her character's potential romance with Thor. "You'll just have to watch and see... They definitely have a ton in common: They both come from Asgard. They are people that are trying to figure out their moral compass, what their responsibility is to their homeland. They're fighters. They're tough," she ponders. "So, I think there's a spark. And Thor is actually a big fan of Valkyrie. He's, like, a fanboy. If there were Valkyrie posters, Thor would have had them in his [bedroom growing up.] Like, probably right over his bed, he would have had me and dreamt about me. So, there definitely is something between them, but whether it's romantic, who knows?"

As for the possibility of Thompson as an actress playing out an onscreen romance with Hemsworth, she jokes, "It was the biggest reason why I didn't think I wanted to take the part, initially. I was like, 'I don't know if I can act that well. Like, finding him attractive would be--I'd have to dig really deep in my soul to find the honesty in that.' So, I just superimpose other people's faces on him and other people's bodies."

The Black Panther connection: One of Thompson's friends and former Creed co-stars, Michael B. Jordan, also recently joined the MCU -- as Erik Killmonger in 2018's Black Panther -- and she says they are hoping to cross superhero paths someday.

"What's so fun about the next phase of the Marvel Universe is that the worlds are colliding more and more," she points out. "I'm also friends with Chadwick Boseman, so I think we're constantly going to just pitch to Marvel how to get all of the characters in one movie and see what happens."

That said, Thompson has a different Valkyrie spinoff in mind. "I'm really into Valkyrie when she's a part of The Fearless Defenders," the actress explains, referencing a run in which Valkyrie teamed up with, for one, Misty Knight. (Currently on Netflix's The Defenders.) "I think it would be fantastic to have an all-star female team which includes Brie Larson. Let's get Tilda Swinton. Lupita [Nyong'o] is in there. Just a really badass group of women that fights, maybe, all men. Like a boys versus girls. But it could be a musical, so Jeff Goldblum would be in it as well."

 

[Surfer]

It's not race it's just strange/bad casting. I had a friend (non comic book fan) honestly ask me "who is that boy in white in the middle?" when he saw this image...

Don't get me wrong, it may be BAD casting but that's not going to stop me from paying to see this movie three times opening weekend.

I don't know why your friend thinks Tessa Thompson looks like a boy. I don't see it. When I look at this image I just think one thing. *****s about to go down.

Surfer

 

[metaphysician]

Maybe in the sense that she doesn't have conspicuous, all-consuming female gendering in her visual. That's not "she looks like a boy", though, that's "movies accustom us to every woman having giant, half-naked boobs that she shoves in the audience's face".

 

[HammerDown]

There's a small brand new image from that scene where she is shooting the mini laser gun in which she looks absolutely stunning. It's the third image on the right, from the top down... It's a tiny brand new look at her but man she looks hot in that pose of hers, with the silver/gold suit, the orange background, the hair and blue cape. It's a stunning sight and i hope we get a good look at that particular image soon.

 

[HammerDown]

Tessa wearing the rainbow bridge to the Emmys.

 

[RoastBeast]

I'm pretty sure Movie Valkyrie could totally take out that Comic Valkyrie up there, if for no other reasons, she's smart enough to armor her vitals and has some core muscles.

 

[Xeno]

"Valkyrie is Thor's hero in THOR: RAGNAROK."

Groan.

Yes, by all means go all SJW ... it's what killed the comic books but hey, let's cast a tiny black woman to be superior to Thor instead of this...

There's a special on tiki torches and white sheets over at Walmart. Just FYI.

 

[InvisibleWoman]

There's a special on tiki torches and white sheets over at Walmart. Just FYI.

I actually pig snorted. Great response.

I'm loving everything about Tessa Thompson. Maybe it's because I know nothing about Valkyrie. However she looks beautiful/strong and her biceps are giving me life.

 

[Abudefduf]

http://screenrant.com/how-hulk-thor-3-gladiator-planet-explained-2/

Soooooo... does this mean that movie Valkyrie is not THE Valkyrie? Am I reading the article right? Well, that's one way to avoid having to address her bisexuality, I guess. So much for "going all SJW", lol.