Screenwriter Eric Pearson's chat with Yahoo Entertainment paints a slightly different version of Thor: Ragnarok as the version of the film when it existed only as words on paper contained small changes that would have made for a vastly different film. It seems when Hela initially descended into Asgard from the Bifrost and effortlessly slaughtered Fandral, Volstagg and the rest of the Einherjar, she was also going to go toe-to-toe with the Destroyer armor.
"I always want the villain to be really … not-Disney. I want to give them moments where they’re really massacring or crushing people...There was [also] a scene where she thought they were hiding the sword in the armory, this big fortress. She goes up, and the destroyer armor comes out to take her out, and she just rips that thing apart too, just to call back the destroyer armor. And it just felt like an extra beat that we didn’t need. We needed to get Thor pushing back to Asgard as fast as possible."
Of course, the Destroyer armor was last seen in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D., whose scientists studied its inner workings to make the energy blaster Agent Coulson used on Loki in The Avengers. Unless there's more than one Destroyer armor or Odin built a replacement, it likely would have been too tricky to explain its return to Asgard's vault.
In addition to this scene, there were also several adjustments to Tessa Thompson's character before and during filming. The original script called for Valkyrie to be the one to reveal to Thor that Hela is his older sister and rightful heir to the Asgardian throne, not Odin. A Valkyrie and Thor romance was also scripted but ultimately nixed. "You’ve got two really good-looking people who can fight and who’d probably be [good together] if the story went there, but it just didn’t. It became more about the mutual respect, and also dealing with her PTSD," explained Pearson.
Thor: Ragnarok currently sits at $509.3 million USD worldwide and is expected to pass the $600 million mark over the weekend.