First Look At Karl Urban's Skurge In Thor: Ragnarok

The debut trailer for Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok totally blew our minds when it was released this morning. It not only offers up thrilling, Hulktastic action, but also some brilliant extended looks at new characters, including Hela (Cate Blanchett), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). What you may not have realized, however, is that the preview also gives us our first look at Karl Urban as Skurge - who you can see in the screenshot below:

Karl Urban Skurge Firing Gun in Thor Ragnarok

If you missed this shot while watching the Thor: Ragnarok trailer for the first time, we can't really blame you. Skurge is only on screen for a brief moment around the 1:04 mark, and Karl Urban doesn't exactly look like Karl Urban with that shaved head. That being said, it's a badass shot that gets us excited to see him in action.

Watching this first live-action version of Skurge, two things will likely pass through the minds of fans who are familiar with the character from the comics. The first is that he legitimately looks like he's been ripped off of the page of Marvel magazines, from the armor he's wearing down to the black markings on his head. The second most notable thing, however, is that he's not utilizing his most notorious weapon: his giant battle axe.

Skurge and Enchantress in Marvel Comics

Skurge (who is also known as the Executioner) doesn't exclusively use this battle axe in action, and he does have a history with using machine guns, but it is still surprising that our first look at the character in Thor: Ragnarok has him using a different weapon. That being said, in the comics he is also typically attached at the hip to The Enchantress (pictured above by his side), who is definitely not in the film, so we already knew going in that the film would be taking some liberties with the adaptation.

Given Karl Urban's talents, we are highly anticipating his performance in Thor: Ragnarok. We're hoping that the brief look at him in the trailer isn't representative of the size of his part in the finished cut... though if the Marvel Studios blockbuster is as great as its first preview, we might be waiting for one of the company's best movies to date this fall.

What do you think of Skurge's look in Thor: Ragnarok? How do you think the character will fit into the film? Hit the comments section below with your thoughts, and look for the film in theaters on November 3rd.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.