It was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con this summer that Thor: Ragnarok would indeed be our cinematic version of the Planet Hulk story, as artwork and props confirmed both heroes would be pitted into the cosmic gladiator ring to fight aliens.
We’ve been getting hints of a Planet Hulk adaption since it was revealed via concept artwork that characters from the comic and linked to Hulk almost made it into Thor: The Dark World, while a nod to one of them did make it into the sequel.
A couple months ago we revealed this unused artwork from Marvel Studios concept artist Josh Nizzi along with brief character details and how they were likely meant to be residents of Sakaar and could make their way into Thor: Ragnarok as fellow gladiators, the brutal cosmic setting of Planet Hulk.
Caiera The Oldstrong (The Shadow People): Caiera was born on Sakaar to a tribe of Shadow People, the creators of the Old Power. She was raised by the priests to be a shadow warrior. When she was thirteen, her village was attacked by alien “spikes” that caused the other villagers to mutate into monsters. Caiera, the only survivor, was rescued by the Red Prince. When the Red Prince becomes the Red King, Caiera is his loyal lieutenant and the mother of his daughter.
When the Hulk arrives on Sakaar and gains public support as a gladiator, she protects the Red King from him. After a failed attempt to ruin his popularity, the Hulk and his Warbound escape. Caiera is sent to kill the Hulk, but they encounter spikes during their battle. The Red King reveals he controls the spikes, devastating her. She turns against the Red King and aids the Hulk in a coup. Hulk becomes the Green King, and he marries Caiera.
She becomes pregnant, but appears to die in an explosion. Hulk returned to Earth in World War Hulk. Caiera survived, however, and gave birth to two sons, Skaar and Hiro-Kala, who serve under her as royal generals.
Kaifi (Sakaaran Imperial): The Sakaaran are a humanoid race that hail from the planet Sakaar. The Sakaaran Imperials are the pink skinned people of Sakaar. They are the dominant culture on the planet and are considered the ruling class. They appear in Planet Hulk, and its sequel World War Hulk.
Jalin (Sagittarian operative of Thanos): The Sagittarians were aliens subdued by the world-destroying threat Galaxy Master – they accepted bondage to this being in exchange of their civilization being provisionally spared even if several Sagittarians disagreed with being executioners of other civilizations.
The Sagittarians visited the Savage Land and left the android known as Umbu the Unliving there to protect a doomsday device that would destroy the Earth. When Ka-Zar and the Incredible Hulk successfully ended this threat, the Saggitarians took a comatose Bruce Banner as a prisoner on their space ship. The Sagittarian soldiers soon regretted their actions as the Hulk would lead a rebel group led by Princess Daydra to successfully overthrow the Galaxy Master.
Korbinite (Beta Ray Bill’s race): The Korbinites once inhabited a peaceful empire of planets with it’s capital being Korbin. They have a humanoid appearance, are governed by an imperial regime, and have a much higher terrestrial technology. They lived for thousands of years in peace, creating an empire through peaceful colonization of various planets. When the flaming demon known as Surtur and his Fire Demons, on the eve of his attack on the Nine Worlds, causing a cosmic cataclysm in the Burning Galaxy, most of the planets colonized by Korbinites were destroyed. Korbin was not destroyed in the first major explosion, but the Galaxy Burning was increasing its temperature, and soon reach lethal levels for Korbinites.
Tana Nile (Rigellian Colonizer): Tana Nile was one of the Rigellian Empire’s most noted Colonizers, contributing to the designation and literal re-location, via Rigel’s unique Space Lock technology, of planets selected for absorption into her race’s multi-galactic empire. In her capacity as potential Empress of Earth, she familiarized herself with the planet while in Terran guise. She shared a residence with Jane Foster, the companion of the Asgardian Thor. After Thor dissuaded her superiors from inducting Earth into their Empire, Tana Nile returned to Rigellian space and became engaged to her government’s High Commissioner.
She and Thor again met during a failed terraforming experiment utilizing a portion of the living planet Ego. Later she accompanied the Thunder God to Earth, where she briefly resided after resuming human form. She accompanied Thor on trips to his home dimension and assisted him in dismantling the Vrellnexian/Sssth slave ring.
K’rll The Soul-Eater (Deonist): K’rll was a member of the alien called the Deonists. The Deonists worshiped a powerful celestial being that supplied energy to their world’s fragile ecosystem in exchange for feeding off the Deonists’ psionic energy as they worshiped. After the Deonists’ god perished after fending off an attacking alien armada, the Deonists, now calling themselves the Soul-Survivors, were forced to capture gods of great power and use their energy to continue supplying their ecosystem with energy. The extraction process always killed the god after his or her energy was exhausted.
When the Soul-Survivors kidnapped the Asgardian All-father Odin as their next sacrifice, Thor and several other Asgardians searched for Odin. When confronted by the Asgardians, K’rll hooked himself into a machine called the Spirit Mold that allowed him to tap into the power of whoever being whose was being drained. Harnessing the Odinforce that remained in the batteries, K’rll was transformed into Soul-Eater, a monster made of pure Odinforce.
Tessa Thompson’s fellow Avenger Valkyrie had also been one of the those unused The Dark World characters from Nizzi’s batch of artwork and has now been recycled for Ragnarok, suggesting others might make their way into the fray too.
Director Taika Waititi had confirmed that Hulk’s alien cohort Miek pointing out the actor playing him on set and teased Korg would likely have a role in the film as well.
So making the jump these other characters could also be showing up isn’t a big leap to make.
Now, during a print interview with magazine Total Film (via MCU Exchange), Taiki Waititi confirms one of the settings is indeed Sakaar the centric location of Planet Hulk.
“Sakaar was just an insane, far-off, futuristic place which was the biggest shift for the film and these characters.”
The Planet Hulk header fan art image is by the talented Australian artist George Evangelista aka @artofgeorge.
Thor: Ragnarok is set for release for November 3rd, 2017.
SOURCE: TOTAL FILM