Could ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Be Getting A Whole New Army Of Female Characters? 

Could ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Be Getting A Whole New Army Of Female Characters?

Marvel churns out a lot of awesome action-packed superhero movies, but lately the Internet’s been taking the studio to task for focusing too much on the same

of hero — namely, the handsome, straight, casually funny white guy who’s usually being played by someone named “Chris.” Although, credit where it’s due — with the introduction of the Scarlet Witch, the imminent release of Netflix’s “Jessica Jones,” and “Captain Marvel” and “Ant-Man And The Wasp” on the way, it seems like Marvel is at least trying to populate its world with more women who aren’t Black Widow.

But soon Marvel might be outdoing itself by adding a

of women to one of their next movies — like, a whole war battalion of ’em at once. That’s because according to a rumor from sources at Birth Movies Death, the script for “Thor: Ragnarok” prominently features not just his giant green rage monster buddy The Hulk, but also an appearance by the Valkyrior, Asgard’s team of all-female warrior goddesses. Heck. Yes.

The Valkyrior –or, more often, just “the Valkyrie” — are known as the “the choosers of the slain” in Norse mythology and are tasked with deciding who dies in battle, guiding worthy souls into Valhalla and the cowards into Hel. Also, they ride winged horses and wear kick-ass armor because they’re the best. Their leader is Brunnhilde (also known as Valkyrie), and concept art from Josh Nizzi suggests that she was intended to appear in “Thor: The Dark World” at some point.

She didn’t, of course, but her army of shieldmaidens would make much more sense as part of “Thor: Ragnarok” anyway. After all, Valkyries have the power to sense death around them, and given that “Ragnarok” is basically the Norse version of the apocalypse, they’re going to be pretty heavily involved in things.

Another interesting wrinkle to note while we’re wildly speculating: it is technically possible for female mortals to become part of the Valkyrior. In the comics, a character named Danielle Moonstar (who, sadly, is a mutant and thus will never appear in a Marvel movie) was once given Valkyrie powers after saving one of their winged horses; if Marvel wanted to go full out and really freak out its movie-going audience in the best way possible, the same thing could possibly happen to Jane Foster. It wouldn’t be the same as her wielding the mighty hammer Mjolnir in the current comics run, of course, but it would be an incredibly interesting direction to take the character while still leaving male-Thor open for more Asgardian adventures.

Of course, bad-ass warrior women are still no replacement for a movie that prominently starring a female lead, but it’s a step forward in a really, really awesome direction — especially if Valkyrie herself gets to be a bigger part of future movies. They

have those three unannounced films to fill up with characters, after all…

“Thor: Ragnarok” hits theaters July 28, 2017.