New Thor: The Dark World images appear including a clearer look at Malekith and the Dark Elves

The teaser for THOR: THE DARK WORLD impressed me and gave me hope that the sequel would make up for the shortcomings in the first film, namely leaving Earth out of the mix for the most part. With the enemy this time around being Malekith and the Dark Elves, I figured this would put the film squarely in the fantastic Nine Realms. Boy, do I look right.

GAME OF THRONES director Alan Taylor is bringing much more sword and sorcery to the sequel while the aesthetic still seems to be linked to the first film. The costumes still look ornate and foreign. It was hard to get a good visual of how the Dark Elves looked from the teaser, but now we have a couple of images that, despite being low res, give us a good look for the first time at Christopher Eccleston as Malekith as well as the armored Dark Elves under his command.

You can tell that is Eccleston under the make-up. He looks reminiscent of Lord Voldemort with the stretched skin and hairless features. The Dark Elves, for that matter, look like warrior Death Eaters. I hope the big ass guns they carry look good in action against Thor’s hammer.

THOR: THE DARK WORLD stars Chris Hemsworth, Christopher Eccleston, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Ray Stevenson, Jaimie Alexander, Tadanobu Asano, Kat Dennings, Zachary Levi, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. It opens on November 8th.