Rishabh Borde
After years of being relegated to the “meh” pile of movies in the all-conquering Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Thor finally got the movie superhero his statue deserves with 2017’s ‘Thor: Ragnarok.’ Directed by New Zealand filmmaker and Academy Award nominee Taika Waititi, the third film in the ‘Thor’ trilogy is a soft reboot of sorts, ditching several prominent characters, including Thor’s erstwhile love interest Jane Foster and Thor’s friends, the Warriors Three in favor of starring roles for Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster of the frontier planet of Sakaar, Tessa Thompson as an ex Asgardian Valkyrie turned scrap hunter and high functioning alcoholic with the moniker Scrapper 142, and Cate Blanchett as Thor’s perniciously destructive half-sister Hela.
When Hela escapes her subterranean prison and returns to claim the throne of Asgard, Thor must team up with his mischievous brother Loki, a gladiatorial Hulk, an amnesiac Bruce Banner, and the reluctant Valkyrie in order to stop Hela from unleashing death and destruction upon the nine realms. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ stars Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo in lead roles as Thor and the Hulk/Bruce Banner respectively, and the story mostly takes place in otherworldly locations far removed from Earth. If you were wondering where Thor: Ragnarok was filmed, read on to find out everything we know.
Thor: Ragnarok Filming Locations
The story of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ takes place across a number of locations in the universe, starting out with an unnamed fiery planet where Thor confronts the fire demon Surtur during the movie’s opening sequence. As the story progresses, Thor finds himself spending time mostly in his home realm of Asgard, and later on the frontier planet of Sakaar. For a brief sequence in between, Thor and his brother Loki also find themselves in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City.
The filming for all of these scenes took place in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ star Chris Hemsworth’s home country of Australia for the most part, with the majority of the shoot happening in the state of Queensland. The urban scenes were shot in Brisbane, Australia, while the reshoots were filmed in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA.
Director Taika Waititi posted this picture with the main cast of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ on his Instagram account:
And this one of him fooling around with Chris Hemsworth on set:
Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, Queensland
The bulk of the filming for ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ took place in locations across Queensland, Australia. The scenes set on the trash planet of Sakaar were filmed in Village Roadshow Studios in Oxenford, Queensland. Thirty-six massive sets were constructed by hundreds of workers to bring the planet of Sakkar to life. Village Roadshow Studios is a fairly popular filming location for Hollywood, having also served as a backdrop for the filming of Jason Momoa’s ‘Aquaman’, Tom Hiddleston’s ‘Kong: Skull Island’, Johnny Depp’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ and many more.
Village Roadshow Studios is also where the magnificent set for Asgard was created, something which purportedly took 450 workers four months to finish building.
Other Locations in Queensland, Australia
The forests of Asgard where Heimdall hides its citizens from Hela’s wrath are actually located at the enchanting Mount Tamborine and Cedar Creek Falls in South East Queensland, Australia. The galactic trash dump where Thor initially crash lands and is captured by Scrapper 142 was filmed in the vast Oxenford Quarry in Oxenford, Queensland.
Brisbane, Australia
The scenes with Loki and Thor at the beginning of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ were actually filmed on location in the city of Brisbane, inside a small alley off Mary Street called Esk Lane. Check out this picture of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston posing with director Taika Waititi while filming in Brisbane:
Of course, there was a copious amount of CGI involved in turning the plateaus and quarries of Australia into exotic realms like Asgard and Sakaar.
Atlanta, Georgia
While principal filming for ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ almost exclusively took place in Australia’s famous Gold Coast, a few reshoots were later carried out in Atlanta, Georgia.
