Thor: Ragnarok, the third movie following the Asgardian god of thunder, is set to be released in November of this year, and after watching the film’s first trailer, which premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in July, we were immediately excited. Chief among the numerous reasons we want to see this film is the new Asgardian heroine named Valkyrie, played by actress Tessa Thompson.
Since we always love to see strong female characters, especially in primarily male-driven Marvel movies, we can't wait to see Valkyrie wield her swords on the big screen. However, according to Thompson, not everyone was happy about the addition of this Asgardian warrior, and it was all because of what the actress looks like.
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When Tessa Thompson was first cast as Valkyrie, according to Bustle, many Marvel fans began leaving racist comments on the actress' Instagram and Twitter feeds. Apparently, those fans took issue with the fact that Thompson, a multiracial woman, was cast as a character, who in the original comics was white with blonde hair.
There's no doubt that being faced with such intense backlash was difficult, but the actress seems to have a fairly positive outlook on the situation. She told Bustle, "There’s definitely an element of it where you go, 'OK, that’s just racism. Not cool.'" But, Thompson also said she kind of had to just let it roll off her back for the sake of getting the important work done. She explained, "We just do what we do and we hope that people respond to it and we ignore the ones that don’t... It's important for Marvel to answer the call for inclusion and diversity and also to be able to have some freedom with these stories."