Thor: Ragnarok’s Cate Blanchett has made the call for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to incorporate more female villains into its films.
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Speaking to E! News at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Blanchett, who plays the villainous Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, said that she was a bit surprised to learn that she was the MCU’s first full-blown villainess. Rebecca Hall’s Maya Hansen was actually supposed to be the main villain in Iron Man 3 but this was altered to boost toy sales, and Blanchett quickly petitioned for this to change. “I didn’t realize…I was inhabiting the first female Marvel villain onscreen,” the actress said.
“I thought, ‘Surely not… well, no actually that’s true.’ There’s been many, many, many [female villains] in the comic books, but [Marvel Studios] has been a little tardy in bringing them to the screen, so hopefully there will be a lot more vilainesses.”
Blanchett touted the Goddess of Death as the ideal foil for Thor, admitting that what drew her to the role was how powerful she was and the instant impact she made against the God of Thunder. Blanchett referenced the destruction of his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, early on in the film as a major factor in coming on board Taika Waititi’s project.
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“That had me at ‘hello’ actually,” Blanchett said of her character stripping Thor of his weapon. “I thought that was really exciting that they were prepared to destroy Thor’s power in the first few minutes. It’s a nice entrance.”
Opening November 3, Thor: Ragnarok 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/the Hulk and Anthony Hopkins as Odin.