"Thor: Ragnarok" isn't exactly the most popular Marvel movie right now. The last film in the Thor franchise- "Thor: The Dark World"- made plenty of money but didn't exactly receive rave reviews. So the next film- Marvel's planned sequel, "Thor: Ragnarok"- would have to be a major success to keep the Thor franchise in good standing with the fans.
And that might just be the case. MoviePilot speculates that "Thor: Ragnarok" may be a critical film to the story of Marvel's Phase Three. As was already revealed, Phase Three will be leading up to massive cosmic battle between the Avengers and Thanos in the two "Avengers: Infinity War" films. And right now, Thor is the Marvel Universe's biggest connection to the cosmic world where Thanos resides (yes, "Guardians of the Galaxy" had plenty of Thanos, but it's not like the Avengers even know who the Guardians are at this point).
According to MoviePilot, Thor: Ragnarok may have long-lasting effects that stretch to nearly every film in Phase Three- excluding films like Spider-Man, obviously, which have no reason to involve Norse gods and are just about a teenager living in New York City.
As well, we know that Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye in the Marvel films, was almost cast in "Thor: Ragnarok", but had to leave the third Thor film to secure a part in "Captain America: Civil War." Franchise Herald, who has the news, didn't say exactly why Renner couldn't be in both the third Thor and Captain America movies, but we're sure Marvel has a perfectly rational explanation (that they'll keep secret for years).
"Thor: Ragnarok" also isn't the end of Thor's involvement with the Marvel universe. It's long been rumored that the superhero would perish at the fateful end of his third film, but given that star Chris Hemsworth just revealed he's under contract for several more movies beyond "Thor: Ragnarok", that's not that likely.
"Thor: Ragnarok" will premiere on November 3, 2017.
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