The newest Thor: Ragnarok trailer hints at his team being called the Revengers. Could there a bigger significance behind this clever nod to the comics?

Photo Credit: Thor Ragnarök/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Image Acquired from EPK TV

The Revengers trailer for Thor: Ragnarok is brief at best, but it shows Thor recruiting each of member of his team, while the background dialogue hears him discussing the team’s formation with Valkyrie. Check out the trailer below:

To be perfectly clear, Thor’s ragtag team of heroes aren’t identical to the Revengers from the comics. The Thunder God’s team is filled with renegade types just like them, but they’re not exactly the same. Thor’s team consists of Loki, Valkyrie and Hulk, all of who are anti-heroes in some regard, which makes them similar to the Revengers.

For example, Hulk has experienced his fair share of dark moments in the past what with his rampages leaving several dead in his wake. Loki is no stranger to killing indiscriminately either, evidenced by his actions during The Avengers. And Valkyrie appears to be okay with capturing innocent individuals and delivering them to the Grandmaster for his gladiatorial matches. Therefore, it’s reasonable to call them anti-heroes, just like the Revengers. For more on the Revengers, take a look at their comic origins.

In the comics, the first team of Revengers were formed by Wonder Man after he took notice of all the Avengers’ recent failures. To address the situation of Earth being without worthwhile protectors, Simon Williams recruited several second tier superhumans to join his team. William’s initial team consisted of D-Man, Anti-Venom, Virtue, Captain Ultra, Goliath, Atlas and Century. They all shared similar sentiments about the Avengers’ actions around the world, making it quite easy for Williams to convince them to join his crusade. Williams followed up his formation of the Revengers with an all out attack on the Avengers Mansion. Unfortunately, their assault on the Avengers didn’t go over so well with them being defeated shortly after the attack.

Apart from the similarities shared between Thor’s team of heroes and the comic version of the Revengers, this nod to them in the comics probably won’t lead to the actual team showing up in the MCU. Unless opinion of the Avengers drops to even lower standards than it did during Captain America: Civil War, there’s no real need for a team like the Revengers to show up. Then again, Phase 4 of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is still filled with uncertainty, so an iteration of the Revengers isn’t all that preposterous to consider, especially with an even larger galactic war being waged on Earth in Avengers: Infinity War.

As previously mentioned, the people of Earth weren’t too keen on the Avengers after the events of Civil War left the planet shaken, therefore a more upright brigade of heroes like the Revengers could be ideal heroes to replace the Avengers in the upcoming Phase 4 when we account for the incoming war potentially decreasing approval of the Avengers’ unsanctioned activities. If that’s the case in the fourth Avengers movie, we could very well see the Avengers go head to head with another group of superheroes—possibly even a government-funded group like the Thunderbolts. The MCU’s version of the United States government has proven that they’re willing to recruit superhumans to protect their invested interests, so an entire team like the Thunderbolts or the Revengers could be where the MCU’s narrative is leading next.

Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters on November 3, 2017.

Do you think there’s something more to the Revengers’ reference made in the Thor: Ragnarok trailer? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.