Tessa Thompson's 'Thor: Ragnarok' character Valkyrie was pitched as the "Han Solo of the movie".

Tessa Thompson

Tessa Thompson

The 34-year-old actress will play the elite fighter in the upcoming third film in the trilogy - the latest movie in the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe - and director Taika Waititi told Thompson her character was like the iconic hero from the 'Star Wars' franchise.

Speaking to The Independent newspaper, Thompson said: "It was quite collaborative but [Waititi] and I got on from the minute we met each other.

"He pitched Valkyrie as sort of the Han Solo of the movie and so I sort of knew the space that she wanted to occupy, and we wanted to subvert any sort of clichés in our portrayal of her. I say 'ours' because he was really integral to that."

Tessa stars in the movie alongside Chris Hemsworth as the titular Thor, Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and Cate Blanchett as villain Hela.

The character of Valkyrie was also recently revealed to be the first LGBT character in the MCU, when Thompson admitted she will be the first explicitly non-heterosexual character in the film franchise.

Responding to a fan question on social media, the star tweeted: "She's bi. And yes, she cares very little about what men think of her. What a joy to play! (sic)"

The film also marks the first time the main villain in an MCU movie is a woman, and Blanchett previously admitted she was absolutely thrilled to be given the chance to play Hela.

She said: "I didn't realise I was inhabiting the first female Marvel villain onscreen. I thought, 'Surely not ... well, no actually that's true.'

"There's been many, many, many [female villains] in the comic books, but they've been a little tardy in bringing them to the screen, so hopefully there will be a lot more villainesses."

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