We are living in the golden age of superhero movies, but silver screen comic book villains have often been more miss than hit over the course of the last few years. That said, the first official trailer for Thor: Ragnarok debuted online yesterday, and our first glimpses of Cate Blanchett's Hela (a possible stand-in for Lady Death alongside Thanos) are incredibly promising. Most online communities have heaped nothing but praise upon Hela's overall look and depiction in Ragnarok, but Power Rangers' Elizabeth Banks is hilariously calling out Hela for stealing her evil villainess look. Check out Banks' calling out Cate Blanchett, below.
Looks like it's time for another game of "Who Wore It Better?" At first glance, it is admittedly pretty uncanny to see how similar Thor: Ragnarok's Hela looks compared to Power Rangers' Rita Repulsa in that picture. Both of these evil villains have incredibly dark black, borderline goth aesthetics, and each of them appears to have a very measured and calm (albeit extremely menacing) personality. Beyond that, Hela even seems to be able to materialize weapons and "morph" into another form during combat, which is pretty easy to compare to Rita's Green Ranger abilities. Those are some striking similarities between two completely different characters in two completely different movie universes, so the goofy shade is not entirely unfounded on the part of Ms. Banks.
Does this mean the folks behind Thor: Ragnarok stole the look of Hela from early glimpses at Power Rangers? Of course not. Elizabeth Banks is just messing around here, but if you want to really look at the nitty gritty details, Hela's appearance is incredibly faithful to the comic book source material, and she has been around for the last five decades. I think the deeper implication here is the fact that there are certain archetypes that we have come to expect in battles between good and evil, and this look harkens back to what we associate with a traditional "witch." After all, this is an on-screen look that dates all the way back to The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz; it's timeless because it works.
There do appear to be differences as well as similarities -- at least from the little footage we have seen of Hela. As Elizabeth Banks is known primarily as a comedic actress in Hollywood, her depiction of Rita was mostly characterized by some delightfully campy scenery chewing and an all-around sense of fun. By contrast, Hela seems a bit more straightforward regarding her particular brand of evil and the malicious nature of her intent. Aesthetic similarities aside, there are clearly enough nuances to each of these evil women to make them distinct enough to stand on their own as two of the greatest superhero bad guys in recent memory.
Of course, you will be able to compare these two powerful silver screen sorceresses for yourself once Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on November 3. While we wait, here's what we know about the upcoming flick. As for Elizabeth Banks, you can catch her as Rita Repulsa in Power Rangers, which is still in theaters.
