Thor: Ragnarok
Preliminary model for the Sakaar cityscape
references Giger's Psychedelic Landscape
and Biomechanical Landscape I ?

leading from


a)  Mockup for the Sakaar city in Thor: Ragnarok. (photographed in Queensland, Australia in 2017)

Known to be inspired by the illustrations of Jack Kirby. A known starting point for the cityscape design was a Jack Kirby illustration showing a head of a pilot of the future in their need to Kirby-ize the city.


Nerdist: When brainstorming over the look of Sakaar, director Taika Waititi looked to 1960’s Jack Kirby for inspiration, then gave Hennah a specific image that made the concept click into place. “He came up with some Jack Kirby art, which is a head in a helmet, and it’s really wacky and quite surreal, and he said, ‘This is Sakaar.'” Hennah said. “So that just opened up the floodgates.  (https://nerdist.com/thor-ragnaroks-sakaar-mcu-jack-kirby-jeff-goldblum/ )

Galactic Head by Jack Kirby (1969)


However a while back I documented connections between Jack Kirby and HR Giger's art, and how Kirby referenced Giger's Felt Drawing (work 147) for one of his cityscapes. See: Jack Kirby's flying serpent with holes from Eternals #9 references Giger's work 147

I wonder if this influenced the direction of their work since people in the film industry are often so eager to borrow elements of Giger's artwork and say nothing about it, and the idea of the Kirby/Giger connection is a just a theory of mine as far as the public should be concerned.


Photo of model from an exhibition in Queensland
(source: https://hiveminer.com/Tags/creatingthecinematicuniverse,ragnarok)
"Capital city model,  planet Sakaar,  
Styrofoam, plastic from Thor Ragnorak 2017

Sakaar is home to the Sakaarans, a diverse group of alien beings who became stranded on the planet after being caught in a wormhole. This model of Sakaar's capital city offers an intriguing insight into the possible environments created for the forthcoming film Thor Ragnorak 2017

Filmed on the Gold Coast, Thor Ragnorak brought together a number of local specialists. This model
was painted by Shelley Hollubiczka (Set Finisher) and Wendy Brough (Set Painter)" (Information from Marvel exhibition in Queensland)


b) References HR Giger's Psychedelic Landscape (1971)? 

Note that these landscapes both have winged towers and large horizontal structures running across them.

HR Giger's Psychedelic Landscape (1971)

Final tower from Thor: Ragnorak movie and winged building from Giger's Psychedelic Landscape


c.i) Biomechanic details on the side of the battle arena loosely references Giger's Biomechanic Landscape I (work 583) 1984/1986 ?


Biomechanic Landscape I (work 583) 1984/1986


It's an obvious choice for people wanting to create an alien technical landscape, but also understand also that this Giger painting references a Jack Kirby illustration in an unobvious way. See: Giger's Biomechanical Landscape I (work 583)



Sakaar arena building model from an exhibition in Queensland (source?)


c.ii) Citsyscape in general references Giger's Biomechanic Landscape I (work 583) 1984/1986 ?
While I have basically pointing out the decorations on the bucket like building, I might want to also generally compare it to the the long horizontal beams made up of pipes fused together understanding that they didn't so directly want to stick to Giger's painting at all, but use it as something to bind Kirby's illustrative ideas together.





Photo of model from an exhibition in Queensland (source: https://images.moviepilot.com/

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