THOR: RAGNAROK Director Taika Waititi Pitched Valkyrie as The Han Solo of the Movie

Thor: Ragnarok, is not only the third installment in Marvel’s Thor franchise, it will also introduce a slew of new characters, including the Asgardian warrior, Valkyrie, played by actress Tessa Thompson.

This role marks the first time that Thompson has worked with director Taika Waititi, but she told Independent that she was very excited for the New Zealand director to be able to helm the highly anticipated Marvel movie:

“With this film they really wanted Ragnarok to really feel like what Ragnarok means, which is the destruction of the old and the birth of the new. It needed to have a filmmaker that feels very singular, you needed to have someone who was going to really shake up the tone. If you look at Taika’s work he’s such an auteur and so funny, his humour is really specific. I’m just happy that Marvel let him make a Taika Waititi-ish Marvel movie.”

Thompson said a lot of the script was ad-libbed which was encouraged by Waititi. She also explained how the development of her character was a joint effort between herself and the director:

“It was quite collaborative but [Taika] and I got on from the minute we met each other. He pitched Valkyrie as sort of the Han Solo over the movie and so I sort of knew the space that she wanted to occupy, and we wanted to subvert any sort of cliches in our portrayal of her. I say ‘ours’ because he was really integral to that.”

They both wanted Valkyrie to stand out from the other Marvel Cinematic Universe female heroes. She’s tough, hard-drinking and more than equal to the men in the movie.

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