'Thor: Ragnarok' Deleted Post-Credit Scene Had An Alternate Fate For The Grandmaster
One of the most enjoyable characters in the highly entertaining Thor: Ragnarok is Jeff Goldblum's madcap Grandmaster. Goldblum steals every single scene he's in, and if you wanted even more of him, Ragnarok director Taika Waititi just revealed a Thor: Ragnarok deleted post-credit scene that would've given the Grandmaster a different fate.
If you haven't seen Thor: Ragnarok yet, perhaps avoid this, since it contains spoilers.
In Ragnarok, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) find themselves on the planet Sakaar, ruled over by the somewhat crazy Grandmaster, played to perfection by Jeff Goldblum. The climax of Ragnarok involves Thor freeing the Grandmaster's gladiator prisoners to stage a revolution. While the film proper doesn't tell us what becomes of the Grandmaster, a post-credit scene reveals his fate. And this is where those spoilers come in, folks,
In the one post-credit scene that ended up in the film, the Grandmaster emerges as the revolt is dying down and tries to take credit for it, saying that you can't really have a revolt without someone to revolt against. He then proclaims the revolt to be a "tie." But in an interview with Collider, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi revealed there was a much different ending planned for the Grandmaster:
"We were determined to not have too many [post credit scenes]. The thing [with Loki and Thor], that was the thing we did in reshoots. It was a last minute decision. And the other thing at the end, with The Grandmaster, was something we shot on Gold Coast that was something I planned for a long time. It was either going to be that or it was going to be Topaz and Grandmaster stowing away on the ship at the end."
Waititi is referring to the massive ship that his character Korg and Loki use to rescue Asgard from Hela – implying that the alternate post-credit scene would reveal that the Grandmaster and his henchwoman Topaz (Rachel House) had stowed-away on the ship when Korg and Loki took it. If you're still hoping to see the scene, you might be in luck. Waititi implies that it might end up on the eventual Blu-ray release, and also indicates had the scene been left it, it would've brought the Grandmaster to earth:
"That could be on the DVD in the deleted scenes, those two in the crowd of the Asgardians and he pushes through and goes, 'I've never heard of this Earth place but... We got to keep a low profile.' And they kind of put these blankets over their heads and disband into the crowd."
The more Goldblum the better, I say, so hopefully we'll get to see this deleted scene, and more of the Grandmaster in general in future MCU films.
Thor: Ragnarok is now playing in theaters everywhere.