Ragnarok Concept Art Reveals Alternate Design of Thor’s Sakaaran Armor
A large part of Thor: Ragnarok’s success is due to the offbeat vision of director Taika Waititi, who mined the God of Thunder’s comedic sensibilities following much more serious takes on the character with the original Thor in 2011 and Thor: The Dark World in 2013. Part of Waititi’s overhaul came with the bright, luminescent colors that lit up the film, which were quite prominent in the many of the characters’ costume designs. Now, one of the concept artists for the film has revealed some of her designs for the character of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), including a look at the alternate design of the armor he wore on the planet of Sakaar – where he engaged in the Contest of Champions gladiator-style battle against Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
Karla Ortiz, who in addition to Marvel has worked with the likes of ILM and Universal Studios, recently posted on her Twitter “an early pass” on what Thor’s “new Sakaaran armor could’ve been.” Ortiz says that she imagined “Thor would’ve grabbed different parts of armor, and somehow made it look fashionable” while on the planet, and posted her concept artwork of it. See Ortiz’s tweet below:
Day 7 of #ThorRagnarok art drop, and it's the Asgardian himself, Thor, played by the incredible @chrishemsworth . This is an early pass on what his new Sakaaran armor could've been. I imagined Thor would've grabbed different parts of armor, and somehow made it look fashionable~
There’s no question that some important elements survived Ortiz’s initial pass for Thor’s Sakaaran armor, perhaps most notably the blue and red color scheme. But unlike the full armored look that Thor is wearing, which almost resembles some sort of ceremonial dress, Thor’s eventual costume definitely has more of a stripped-down look, like a warrior preparing for battle.
The battle in this case, naturally, was the arena showdown with the character revealed to be Hulk, where Thor accented the “road worn” costume he donned at the beginning of the film with only bits of the blue armor as seen in Ortiz’s concept piece (essentially, the left shoulder pad and helmet). As for the red portions of the armor depicted in the concept art, they were clearly replaced with red war paint markings on both the armor and on Thor’s face.
In retrospect, Waititi’s decision to go with the stripped-down look was more appropriate for not only Thor’s arena battle with Hulk, but the scrappy, overall presentation of a stranger trying to piece his shattered life together on the junk planet in any way he can – a move that Ortiz probably has a hard time disagreeing with.
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