Normally, if you happen to be an employee that accidentally streamed part of a top secret film like Thor: Ragnarok, you'd be on your hands and knees making sure that you didn't lose any further access to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But if you're Mark "The Hulk" Ruffalo, you don't just sink back into the corner, no matter how genuinely sorry you are. No, in the case of Ruffalo, you kid around about streaming the other half of Taika Waititi's big comic book debut, and you do it with a smile.
And smile is exactly what Mark Ruffalo did outside of the most recent premiere of Thor: Ragnarok, where he jokingly threatened to make recent history repeat itself. Keep in mind, this is still within a week or so since Ruffalo accidentally shared some audio from the beginning of the third Thor film, as he'd forgotten to turn his social media stream off after the previous event's red carpet rundown. On one hand, that sounds like an invitation to let someone go from their post. But on the other, more reasonable hand, it's all just one more gag in the tool kit of a fantastic actor.
Red carpet selfies and/or streams can be boring if you're not careful. There's only so much smiling and waving that the crowd at home can stand, so if you're going to show off at a premiere, you kind of need to have a gimmick. Mark Ruffalo's sparkling personality helps keep things moving in that respect, but after having his Thor: Ragnarok oopsie moment, the man had a perfect, one-use gag at his disposal for the next carpet he was going to walk. That being said, Ruffalo ha to keep this publicity train rolling until the movie opens on November 3. Maybe he can hire a team of writers to craft some red-carpet one-liners about the post-credits tags in this movie?
This is very much one of those situations where lemons have been turned into lemonade, as Mark Ruffalo was likely embarrassed after accidentally live streaming a piece of Thor: Ragnarok through his social media platform of choice. But, as Marvel Studios tends to do with their promotional apparatus, the incident was spun into something that only served to help rather than hinder the potentially huge performance of the third Chris Hemsworth-led solo film in the MCU. Considering this is the film that's supposed to make Thor fun again, this fits like a glove. So what we're really saying is, should Thor: Ragnarok have been a more sobering affair, this Mark Ruffalo gag shared on Twitter probably wouldn't have worked so well.
We'll see just how funny Thor: Ragnarok turns out to be, as Marvel Studios will attempt to get the last laugh in Asgard on November 3rd. Make sure to grab your tickets in advance while you're waiting for this to open. Then, feel free to plan on seeing some other funny and/or spooky films heading to theaters in the next couple of weeks, using our 2017 release schedule as your guide.
