After months of teasing via concept art, we finally got a first look at Thor: Ragnarok’s main antagonist, Cate Blanchett's Hela. We also learned that the villainous character has been locked away for millennia. Now, having been released, she'll do whatever it takes to remain free. Of course, the particulars of her back story haven't been revealed, but we can assume that Loki is behind this in some way. After all, Loki the Usurper doesn't have the experience that Odin had.

Blanchett talked about Hela as the first true female villain of the MCU, and expressed her amazement that no other true female villains have been presented in the shared universe (via EW):

Can you believe it? Can you believe we're having this conversation and it's 2017 and we're talking about the first female villain? It's ridiculous. There's so much untapped potential villainy in women. It's really exciting. I think finally it's beginning to be acknowledged that women and men want to see a diverse array of characters, and that's race, gender, across the sexual spectrum.

To be noted, Nebula was Thanos’ general in Guardians of the Galaxy, but in the sequel, she becomes one of the heroines who save the galaxy in the sequel. Maya Hansen was supposed to be the main villain in Iron Man 3, but she became a secondary character after the studio said that movie merchandise wouldn’t sell without a male villain.

As far as Hela's powers are concerned, Cate Blanchett revealed that the concept art for the character was quite accurate, in the sense that she'll sport the same hairpiece in the movie. The actress also revealed that it isn’t just for show; the character can manifest weapons from it, which is too much for Thor to handle alone (since, well, the Hulk will also need to be present):

Yeah. She's able to manifest weapons. Her headdress can be weapons. She can manifest weapons out of different parts of her body. I won't tell you which "” I'll leave that hanging.

So Hela is an interesting villain with an interesting back story. We’ll see whether Cate Blanchett will appear in the MCU beyond Thor: Ragnarok.