Every once in a while, a piece of concept art from early on in a movie’s production will come along and give you an idea of what the filmmaker originally had in mind, a different take on a character that has, by this point, been well-established on the screen. Andy Park recently posted two pieces of early Valkyrie concept art to his Twitter, revealing just such a revelation: At one point, Valkyrie was going to have mace-fists.
Here’s another alternate concept design version I did of #TheValkyrie for #ThorRagnarok Early idea Taika had of her being hooded w/mask & w/mace gauntlets. & of course b4 perfect casting of @TessaThompson_x pic.twitter.com/DfDmHH49GD
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) December 3, 2017
That’s not the only thing we can tell from the artwork (though it is certainly the highlight). We can also see that Valkyrie was originally going to be adorned in much darker, cybergoth-inspired clothing. The aesthetic actually works wonders against the film’s Sakaarian backdrop, which is a world known for two things — being a giant dump where the universe’s trash is collected and the Grandmaster’s fight pits.
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Examining Park’s art, it’s easy to see how Valkyrie’s cloak might have been fashioned from the loose wires of downed spaceships, and her spiked pauldron and fist weapons used in mortal combat, if the need arose. Unfortunately, she also looks like she’s aligned with Hela in this concept, which is probably one of the reasons why this design was inevitably scrapped.
In theaters now, Thor: Ragnarok is directed by Taika Waititi and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Cate Blanchett as Hela, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Karl Urban as Skurge, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk and Anthony Hopkins as Odin.