Thor: Ragnarok is a 2017 American superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It’s the sequel to 2011’s Thor and 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, and is the 17th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Take a look below for 30 more interesting and fascinating facts about Thor: Ragnarok.

1. The movie is directed by Taika Waititi from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and the writing team of Craig Kyle and Christopher Yoast, and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor alongside Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins.

2. The movie received highly positive reviews, with many critics declaring it the best movie of the Thor trilogy and praising Taika Waititi’s direction, the cast’s performance, action sequences, soundtrack and humor.

3. The movie grossed $854 million, becoming the highest-grossing movie of the Thor series and the 9th highest grossing movie of 2017.

4. Thor’s “friend from work” line about the Hulk was suggested to Chris Hemsworth by a Make-A-Wish child who paid a visit to the set on the day the scene was filmed.

5. Taika Waititi based Korg’s character on Polynesian bouncers. He said, “We wanted to change the idea of what a hulking guy made of rocks could be. He’s huge and heavy, but with a light soul, and he’s funny and friendly.”

6. Taika Waititi said in an interview with MTV News: “I would say we improvised about 80 percent of the movie, or ad-libbed and threw in stuff.”

7. Anthony Hopkins decided against returning as Odin, but upon reading the story, he changed his mind.

8. Thor: Ragnarok marks the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that the Hulk isn’t voiced by Lou Ferrigno, but by Mark Ruffalo. Ferrigno voiced Hulk in The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

9. Cate Blanchett accepted a role in the movie to please her kids, who are Marvel comics fans. Blanchett’s oldest son Dashiell John Upton suggested that she take the role of Hela, saying it’d be a career boost.

10. Director Taika Waititi  said that he wanted to showcase Chris Hemsworth’s comedic talent in the movie: “He’s so good and underutilized in that department. He’s legitimately one of the funniest things in the movie.”

11. Chris Hemsworth plays Thor in the movie, while his older brother Luke Hemsworth plays Thor in a play within the movie. Their younger sibling Liam Hemsworth was considered for the role of Thor.

12. Sif was originally supposed to appear in the movie, but actress Jaimie Alexander’s shooting schedule for the third season of her TV series Blindspot clashed with the movie’s schedule. It was decided to have the character written out with producer Kevin Feige saying that Sif was on a mission during the same time as Ragnarok.

13. According to producer Kevin Feige, Thor: Ragnarok plays a significant role in setting up Avengers: Infinity War.

14. To prepare for her role as Hela, Cate Blanchett studied the Afro-Brazilian martial art Capoeira.

15. Loki’s play mentions a time when he turned Thor into a frog. This is a reference to a Walter Simonson story where Loki briefly turned Thor into a frog, but he was able to meet a frog named Puddlegulp and share his power with him, turning him into Throg the Frog of Thunder.

16. Chris Hemsworth had to bulk up again for his role as Thor. He had to follow a strict diet of 6000 calories per day, and work out six to seven times a week.

17. In the comics, the Grandmaster has blue skin. Taika Waititi decided against applying blue on Jeff Goldblum, because he felt that Goldblum was a good enough actor to not need it, and because Goldblum had already played a blue-colored character in Earth Girls Are Easy.

18. Thor: Ragnarok marks Tom Hiddleston and Idris Elba’s highest billing to date in any Marvel movie. Ironically, both have less screentime in this movie than the previous Thor movies.

19. According to Taika Waititi, while the movie adapts the Planet Hulk storyline, Hulk wasn’t going to be in the movie at all, it was only supposed to be Thor stranded on an alien battlefield-world.

20. Tessa Thompson based her performance as Valkyrie on Sarah Connor from Terminator 2.

21. Thor: Ragnarok is the first movie that Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum have appeared in together since Jurassic Park.

22. The movie was retitled in Japan as “Thor: Battle Royale,” an homage to the Koushun Takami story “Battle Royale,” about people who are imprisoned in an arena and forced to kill each other.

23. Cate Blanchett played Hela in a motion-capture suit, because of Hela’s ability to shapeshift her body. She said this was a bit awkward, since she got confused in a few scenes.

24. Korg offers Thor a three-pronged wooden spear saying, “It’s not much use unless you want to kill three vampires who are all clustered together,” which is a clear reference to Taika Waititi’s previous movie What We Do in the Shadows, about a group of vampires who live together.

25. Valkyrie’s flashback used a 900 FPS high-speed frame rate, and a special 360 degree lighting rig of 200 strobe lights to make the scene look as disorienting as possible.

26. Thor wields a mace in his fight with the Hulk. In the Marvel comics, this mace was used by Thor’s ally, Hercules.

27. Jeff Goldblum was previously considered for the role of Dr. Bruce Banner and Hulk in the 2003 movie Hulk. This is hinted at during Grandmaster’s arena intro of the Hulk, when he announced feeling a connection to him.

28. The names of the various space ships in Thor: Ragnarok are a nod to Australia’s Holden car marque. They are model names of various iconic models, such as the Commodore, Torana, Statesman and Kingswood.

29. Thor: Ragnarok is the first movie from director Taika Waititi that wasn’t also written by him.

30. Having directed the first movie, Kenneth Branagh turned down the chance to return as this movie’s director in order to work on Murder on the Orient Express instead.