With the recent release of Thor: Ragnarok‘s teaser trailer, IndieWire writer Yoselin Acevedo made a short article about the upcoming addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I was excited to see this, because Thor is one of my favorites out of the Marvel superhero movies franchises going on.  What’s been especially interesting to me though, is that Thor seems to be deeply invested in something the other Marvel franchises aren’t.  Genre switching.  While the other franchises build on each of their films, certainly (for instance, The Winter Soldier is more spy-thriller than historical adventure, unlike Captain America: The First Avenger, and while Tony Stark gets more character development each movie and there are slight mood shifts, all three Iron Man films seem like a very similar part of the same cohesive whole).  On the other hand, Thor takes on a new genre each film, and yet somehow without changing its world drastically and while staying true to its characters.  For instance, Thor is basically a Shakespearean drama with superheroes.  Kenneth Branagh has himself commented many times on his intention to make it Shakespearean, as have cast members of the first film and reviewers.  Meanwhile, Thor: The Dark World took a very different approach, going less for a Shakespearean drama approach, and presenting itself more as a sci-fi adventure, but at it’s core has been often discussed as a brother movie, or buddy film and marketed itself as such, heavily focusing on Loki and Thor’s relationship.  This left me, and probably a lot of other fans of the franchise wondering how the third film was going to be made, and we have our answer now: 90s-early 2000s teen movie.  If you don’t believe me, check the music-backed, fast paced editing, explanatory voice over, rapid and straightforward conflict introduction, and joke timing in the new teaser and compare it to the marketing in trailers for Mean Girls, or She’s The Man.  It even almost starts with the now infamous-overly-memed *freeze frame* “Yep, that’s me–*insert name here*.  I bet you’re wondering how I got in this situation.”

I personally think it’s great.  I love that the Thor movies constantly jump around and try not just different stories, but wildly different storytelling techniques and genres for their superhero, and bring in new directors to tell their own kinds of stories.  I’m excited to see where Thor: Ragnarok takes us.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the new teaser Thor: Ragnarok. (For fun, compare it to the heavy focus on the brother relationship in the trailer for Thor: The Dark World‘s trailer and heavily Shakespearean language and thematics highlighted in the trailer for Thor.