The latest issue of EW offers our first official look at the cast of Thor: Rangarok, and it’s certainly different — which actually might be a pretty good thing. The previous two films are widely considered lesser MCU entries, but with Taika Waititi behind the camera and promising a more humorous god of thunder, we’re looking forward to seeing a different side of Thor. That side is definitely present on this magazine cover, which also features Cate Blanchett as the villainous Hela and Tessa Thompson as the warrior Valkyrie.

OK, the most obvious thing on this new EW cover is definitely Chris Hemsworth’s makeover. Thor has chopped off his long, luxurious mane of hair and replaced Mjolnir with a pair of rather badass-looking swords:

Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
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The cover, which has some serious ’90s vibes, also offers our first official look at Hela (Blanchett), a formidable new villain who is accidentally released from the place where she’s been imprisoned for a very long time. Blanchett trained with famed stuntwoman Zoe Bell and learned Brazilian martial arts for her role in Ragnarok, which sees Hela sending Thor off to the planet Sakaar, described by Hemsworth as “basically where every wormhole across the universe dumps out its trash, so you get people from all walks of life with all sorts of incredible abilities and powers.”

It’s there that Thor runs into Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and the two are pitted against each other in a gladiator-style battle (inspired in part by Planet Hulk). And while that plot sounds like your average Marvel adventure, Rangarok will be a bit different from the previous Thor films, in attitude at least, thanks to Taika Waititi, the director of What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Says Hemsworth:

Taika has such a quirky, left-of-field sense of humor, which forced all the characters and the tone of the whole story to head in a new direction. Each day we were like, ‘Are we pushing it too far? Are we allowed to have this much fun?’

I don’t know if Thor’s new hair screams “fun,” but everything else about Ragnarok (especially Cate Blanchett doing martial arts) sounds pretty delightful so far. Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on November 3.

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