‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Trailer: Marvel Studios Movies Now Have Two Possible Aesthetics

By Andrew Whalen Published 04/10/17 EDT

'Thor: Ragnarok' is locked in for a Nov. 3, 2017 release date. Marvel Studios

The first teaser trailer for Thor: Ragnarok has arrived, revealing Cate Blanchett’s Hela and Jeff Goldblum as himself, the Grandmaster.

Since 2008, when Marvel Studios released its first two movies, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, the ongoing shared universe has faced one consistent criticism: all its movies look and feel about the same. The Marvel tone and aesthetic has been remarkably consistent, like Bud Light. But as a criticism, the idea that all Marvel movies look and feel the same has turned into an unexamined dogma. The first teaser trailer for Thor: Ragnarok offers a definitive rebuttal. Marvel doesn’t have one aesthetic, but two. Since 2014 the Marvel Studios universe has diverged into two clades, one with Captain America: The Winter Soldier as its antecedent, the other fathered by Guardians of the Galaxy.

It should be fairly obvious just which camp Thor: Ragnarok falls into. While 2016’s Captain America: Civil War embodies everything tangled, geopolitical and quasi-realistic about the Marvel movies, Thor: Ragnarok looks far more aligned with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. In some accidental fashion, 2017’s Marvel movies (which also includes the John Hughes tribute, Spider-Man: Homecoming) act as a rebuttal to the Marvel movies loaded with international bureaucrats, embittered terrorists and real-world locations. And if you thought Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was ready to be airbrushed on the side of your Mystery Machine, then peep this:

Yes, the first Thor movie trailer starts with a joke on a movie cliché. (Twitter users would recognize it thusly: *record scratch, freeze frame* Yup, that’s me. Now, I better you’re wondering how I ended up in this situation…) We’ve gone full circle. What was once a joke on movie storytelling laziness is now a joke on awareness of the joke...