Marvel Studio's trademark secrecy has done a solid job of keeping Thor: The Dark World's Malekith The Accursed, the movie's central villain, a tantalizing mystery. Though we've seen an impressive number of trailers and television spots for the movie, most have featured very little of the antagonist, instead mostly focusing on characters like Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Natalie Portman's Jane Foster. Now, though, IGN has release a brand new clip from the film and it puts Malekith, as played by Christopher Eccleston, right in the center of the spotlight... quite literally.
As I learned while visiting the set of the new comic book movie last year, Malekith is the leader of the Dark Elves, a race thought to be extinct for millions of years. When a split in the fault lines of the universe allows them the chance to return, however, Malekith sees it as an opportunity to take the vengeance he has long wanted but has never been able to acquire. At the leader's side is the loyal Algrim The Strong (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who helps the general on his mission.
Of course, this clip doesn't really offer us any insight into Malekith's specific plans, and I'm sure that Marvel is very happy to keep it that way. You'll remember that none of the marketing for Shane Black's Iron Man 3 had a single mention of the dangerous Extremis serum that wound up driving the entire plot. At this stage we actually know very little about Thor: The Dark World, and hopefully things will stay that way for the next couple of weeks.
Based on a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who also wrote Captain America: The First Avenger and the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World is set after the events of The Avengers and finds Thor traveling back to Asgard to both send his brother Loki to prison and take his rightful place as king of his home realm. Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins reprise their roles from the first movie, while Zachary Levi takes over for the role of Fandral, previously portrayed by Josh Dallas. The movie will be in theaters on November 8th and you can watch the previously released theatrical trailer below.
