Written By: Nick Poulimenakos

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is gearing up for one of their most ambitious films yet, Thor: Ragnarok. Not only will the film continue the story of the mighty god of thunder, it will also take inspiration from the fan-favourite ‘Planet Hulk’ comic book story. The film will visit the planet Sakaar and include the very same gladiatorial battles that Hulk fought in. However, apparently this wasn’t always the plan. Director Taika Waititi is now speaking out on how and why Planet Hulk is included in the third Thor film.

In an interview with IGN, Waititi discusses how Planet Hulk made its way into the MCU:

“I was just trying to inject my tone and sensibility into it, and then those guys who actually know the comics came in and were like, ‘Let’s just push it in this direction back here. Korg and Miek, who are two characters from ‘Planet Hulk,’ there’s that stuff.”

Of course, with any adaptation, the director put his own spin on the classic story:

“One difference is we have the Grandmaster ruling Sakaar instead of the Red King, and so there’s those things, but I don’t really pay that much attention to it. I’m trying to create cool characters and tone and story instead of it has to be totally authentic to the comic because I think that’s when you run into trouble when you can’t be creatively free to adjust things.”

“Planet Hulk” is a famous Hulk story that ran from 2006-2007. Written by Greg Park and illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan and Aaron Lopresti, the narrative followed Bruce Banner being seen as an uncontrollable beast and the Illuminati, which included friends of Bruce, decided to shoot Hulk into space where he landed on the planet Sakaar and was forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena.

We know that Hulk in the film will not be shot into space. In Ragnarok, Hulk somehow finds a planted wormhole that transports him to Sakaar. These wormholes were created by The Grandmaster and Valkyrie. This leads to Thor’s eventual meeting with Hulk but it is unknown how Thor himself gets to the planet. Does Hela send him there after conquering Asgard? Does he stumble upon a wormhole as well? We’ll have to wait and see…

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