Thor: Ragnarok’s Valkyrie is a proper badass who doesn’t really need weapons to beat folks into a pulp, but she does seem to be rather fond of bladed weapons during the movie. In newly-released concept art for the character, though, she’s wielding a pair of weapons that would have been way cooler.
Illustrator Andy Park’s art has had a huge influence on the look and feel of many Marvel movies and Ragnarok’s no exception. One of his more drastic visions for Hela ended up making its way into the film, and he played a somewhat similar, albeit smaller role in designing Valkyrie’s aesthetics. Yesterday, Park took to Twitter to share images of some of his earliest concepts for the Asgardian warrior and revealed that at one point, director Taika Waititi was playing around with the idea of giving Valkyrie mace gauntlets. Again: Mace. Gauntlets. As in gauntlets that are also maces.
According to Park, this version of Valkyrie’s design came along before Tessa Thompson’s casting, which is why his illustrations don’t quite look like the actress. (Other concept art of Valkyrie rendered by other artists appear to have been produced after the announcement of Thompson’s casting.) As intense as Valkyrie’s scavenger look in the film ended up being, it’s tough not to imagine what it might have been like to see her powering up those mace gauntlets and wailing on Hela with them.
But who knows? Maybe we’ll end up seeing her wield them during Infinity War or the next time she decides to pop up in the MCU.
DISCUSSION
Taika Waititi would have just used them to support a running gag about how she couldn’t pick anything up.