While they might look and act like gods, the actual Asgardians themselves aren't truly gods. They're really a bunch of super-advanced inter-dimensional aliens who just so happened to be worshiped by the Nordic and Germanic peoples of Ancient Europe.
The films go about explaining this somewhat, describing the nine realms with a kind of 'science meets magic' theology that only implies the origins of Thor's people.
Despite the obvious mythological connotations, it's clear that Marvel's Norse figures are a far cry away from their ancient counterparts. The core tenets are most definitely there (the same ones that ebb and flow through most ancient myth and legend), but they're portrayed in a decidedly more Marvel-esque manner, with superheroics aplenty dominating the foreground of the realm's stories.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
