Thor: Ragnarok has plenty of surprises for fans up its huge, armored sleeves, but one of the best is a big cameo scene early on in the film. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to come back to this story (sounds spoiler siren) but the cameos were actually revealed a while ago.
Last month we reported that the movie would feature a Game of Thrones-style play recounting the events of Thor: The Dark World and starring Matt Damon as Loki, Chris Hemsworth’s real-life brother Luke Hemsworth as Thor, and Jurassic Park's Sam Neill as Odin.
I sat down to watch Thor: Ragnarok earlier this month and can confirm it's a brilliant scene, you could actually hear the moment the audience realized who they were watching and crumbled into laughter. Naturally I asked director Taika Waititi how it came about when I interviewed him earlier this month.
"When that particular scene was written they weren't supposed to be cameos," reveals Watiti. "We filmed it and then we realized it might be funnier if we make it more of an in-joke, where the stars of this play were stars on earth. I particularly love that scene because those are some of my favorite people and they're all in this ridiculous theater. It just makes me happy."
Read more: 5 questions I have after watching Thor: Ragnarok
Watiti couldn’t resist giving himself a cameo role in Thor: Ragnarok too, but you'd be forgiven for not recognizing him. His character, Korg the Kronan, is a work of CGI wizardry. "Korg wasn't in there until quite late in the writing process," he says of the stony gladiator. Despite the late arrival he's one of the highlights of the movie, along with his insectoid companion, Miek. Fingers crossed for a Korg and Miek spin-off.
Thor: Ragnarok is out in the UK now and will be released on November 3 in the US.
