When the full title for Thor 2 was announced at San Diego Comic Con in July there was a slight clue as to where the Asgardian would be going on his next adventure. That clue has now been completely flushed out of the darkness so to speak. Thor: The Dark World will take our hero to Svartalfheim, the home of the dark elves. It was announced some time ago that Mads Mikkelsen was to play the villain. However, due to a scheduling conflict he was forced to drop out. Now we are getting reports that Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who) will be taking over for Mikkelson, and now we know for sure what role he will be playing. It seems Marvel is ready to introduce the villain Malekith the Accursed who is the leader of the dark elves and all around bad guy and pain in Thor’s ass.
One of the more interesting things about Malekith is that he doesn’t look like an Asgardian. Loki was a great first villain because he looks like a regular guy but Malekith’s face is two different colors and he is fairly odd looking. Luckily he is still a humanoid so we aren’t talking Rocket Raccoon here. Malekith possesses super strength, durability and an ability to wield dark faerie magic. It will be nice to see Thor have to go up against someone who can provide some interesting fight momentum changes with his magic, even more so than Loki did. The early Malekith’s story arc is one that could work perfectly for the upcoming sequel. In the comics, Malekith captures an asgardian named Lorelei and uses her as bait against Thor in order to get his grubby little elven hands on an asgardian powerful ancient artifact, the Casket of Ancient Winters (CoAW). This artifact is able to reproduce the harsh territory of Niflheim, the realm of death. Malekith uses the CoAW against Earth and Thor of course is out to stop him. During this arc, Thor battles Algrim the Strong who is a dark elven follower and all around brute. It’s time for Thor to have a real physical challenge and I think Algrim could be just that.

What storyline Marvel Studios goes with is still being keep a secret, but I think with the inclusion of Malekith we might just be heading for a Casket of Ancient Winters story, and that would be cool to see. While I enjoyed Thor, I thought it was one of the weakest Marvel movies and lacked a serious amount of action. Kenneth Branaugh focused on the family dynamic between Thor, Loki, and Odin and less on Thor smashing things, and in hindsight that makes the most sense. It that relationship dynamic that made the movie worth watching and kept the story grounded. That being said, now that Thor is established I think its’ high time he starts doing some damage with Mjolnir as well. Director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) should be the great in making this happen while simultaneously not making the movie mindless. Thor: The Dark World hits theaters in the U.S. on November 8th, 2013.