Wait. If you’re asking who is Ragnarok in Thor Ragnarok, you might be looking for a person. Or maybe a robot. Or perhaps just a giant fire demon with a very bad attitude and an even worse crown.
It’s confusing. Honestly, it is. If you grew up reading the comics, you probably expected a specific cyborg clone of the God of Thunder. If you just watched the Taika Waititi movie, you saw a literal apocalypse. Marvel loves to play with these names, shifting them between characters, events, and abstract concepts until your head spins.
Basically, "Ragnarok" isn't a who in the MCU movie; it's a what. But that's only half the story.
To understand why people keep asking "who" he is, we have to look at the weird, metallic history of Marvel Comics and how the 2017 film completely flipped the script.
The Identity Crisis: Is Ragnarok a Person?
In the context of the movie Thor: Ragnarok, Ragnarok is the prophetic destruction of Asgard. It’s the cycle of death and rebirth. It is the literal burning of a civilization.
But if you’re a die-hard comic reader, you know that Ragnarok is also the name of a cyborg clone of Thor.
Created by Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and Hank Pym (well, a Skrull posing as Pym) during the Civil War comic arc, this "Ragnarok" was a biological killing machine. He had Thor’s DNA and a cybernetic brain. He didn't have Thor’s soul, though. That was a big problem. This version of Ragnarok is famous for one horrific moment: he blew a hole through the chest of the hero Goliath (Bill Foster), killing him instantly.
So, when people Google "who is Ragnarok," they’re often looking for that terrifying metallic doppelgänger. But director Taika Waititi went in a totally different direction. He stripped away the sci-fi clones and went back to the Old Norse roots, albeit with a heavy dose of Led Zeppelin and neon colors.
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Surtur: The "Who" Behind the Event
If we’re looking for a physical antagonist that represents the "Ragnarok" entity in the film, we have to talk about Surtur.
Surtur is the Fire Demon of Muspelheim. He’s the one we see in the very first scene, trapped in a cage, rambling about how he’s going to grow as tall as a mountain and wreck Asgard. He’s voiced by the legendary Clancy Brown, and he’s essentially the "who" that makes the "what" happen.
Without Surtur, there is no Ragnarok.
Interestingly, the movie treats Surtur almost like a force of nature rather than a traditional villain. By the end of the film, Thor realizes he actually needs Surtur. It’s a wild pivot. Thor spends the whole movie trying to stop the prophecy, only to realize that the only way to defeat Hela—the Goddess of Death—is to let the world end.
He literally hands the "villain" the keys to his house and tells him to burn it down.
Why the Cyborg Version Didn't Make the Cut
Why didn't Marvel just use the cyborg clone?
Probably because Thor: Ragnarok was already crowded. You had Hela. You had Grandmaster. You had Skurge. Adding a robotic Thor clone would have felt like an overstuffed Thanksgiving turkey. Plus, the MCU had already done the "evil robot" thing with Avengers: Age of Ultron.
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The decision to focus on the mythological event allowed the film to explore themes of colonialism and heritage. Hela, played with delicious malice by Cate Blanchett, represents the dark secrets of Asgard’s past. Ragnarok, the event, represents the cleansing of those secrets.
If Ragnarok had just been a robot, we wouldn't have gotten that final, poignant shot of the Asgardian refugees looking out into space, realizing that "Asgard is not a place, it's a people."
Breaking Down the Mythology vs. The MCU
In actual Norse mythology, Ragnarök (note the umlaut) is "The Doom of the Gods." It’s not just one fight. It’s a series of events:
- Fimbulwinter (three years of winter with no summer).
- The wolf Fenrir swallowing the sun.
- Jörmungandr (the Midgard Serpent) rising from the sea.
- The death of Odin, Thor, Loki, and Tyr.
The movie simplifies this immensely. It turns a cosmic tragedy into a high-stakes heist and escape plan. The Fenris wolf is there, but he’s Hela’s pet. The Midgard Serpent is nowhere to be found. And instead of a bleak, snowy apocalypse, we get a giant fire demon stabbing a golden city with a sword the size of a skyscraper.
It’s different. It’s louder. It’s arguably more fun.
The "Ragnarok" Confusion in Gaming and Beyond
Even outside the movies, the name keeps popping up, adding to the confusion. If you play God of War: Ragnarök, you’re looking at a completely different interpretation of these characters. There, the "who" involves a much more complex web of giants and gods.
In the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games or the Marvel Strike Force mobile game, you might see references to the "Ragnarok" character (the clone). This is why the search results are such a mess. You have a movie, a myth, and a metallic monster all sharing one name.
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What You Should Take Away From This
If you’re trying to settle a bet or just understand what you just watched on Disney+, here is the bottom line.
In the film Thor: Ragnarok, there is no character named Ragnarok. The "Ragnarok" is the destruction of Asgard by the fire demon Surtur. However, in the wider Marvel universe (the comics), Ragnarok is a specific, murderous clone of Thor that looks like him but has glowing red eyes and a nasty habit of killing Avengers.
Wait, what about Hela? A lot of people think Hela is Ragnarok. She isn’t. She’s just the catalyst. She’s the reason Thor has to trigger the apocalypse in the first place. She’s so powerful that the only solution is to destroy the very ground she stands on. It’s like burning down your house because there’s a spider in it—except the spider is your evil sister and the house is a magical realm in space.
Your Next Steps for Asgardian Lore
If this deep dive into the identity of Ragnarok has you hooked, you shouldn't just stop at the movie. To truly get the full picture of how this name has evolved, you’ve got some homework to do.
First, go find a copy of Civil War #3 (2006). This is the first appearance of the cyborg Ragnarok. It’s a jarring contrast to the fun-loving Thor we see in the movies. Seeing "Thor" act as a cold, calculating enforcer for the government is genuinely unsettling and helps you understand why comic fans were so confused when the movie title was first announced.
Next, if you want the "real" story, read the Poetic Edda. Specifically, the Völuspá. It’s the primary source for the actual Norse myth. You’ll see just how much Marvel changed—like the fact that in the real myths, Loki and Heimdall actually kill each other.
Finally, watch the movie again, but pay attention to the murals in the throne room. The movie hidden-in-plain-sight storytelling shows that "Ragnarok" was always inevitable because Asgard was built on a foundation of blood and lies. The "who" doesn't matter as much as the "why."
Asgard is gone. The name remains. Whether it’s a clone or a fire, Ragnarok always means one thing: the end of the world as we know it.