The director and star of Thor: Love and Thunder promise Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher will be completely unique in the MCU.
Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth spoke to Disney twenty-three magazine about their upcoming film and touched on how Bale's villain will challenge the very nature of the franchise and its heroes. "Gorr's backstory involves being wronged by the gods, and a lot of his motivation is getting revenge for these wrongdoings... we really wanted to explore this idea of religion, belief, and what it means to put your faith in a higher power," Waititi said. "And because Thor is essentially a god, what does it mean for him to represent these gods?"
Like in the source material, Gorr becomes the God Butcher after experiencing tragedy at the hands of the gods. He makes it his mission to kill them all, something the first Love and Thunder teaser showcased will already be underway when Thor and his friends join forces. But while the God of Thunder will ultimately work to take down Gorr, the actor wielding the hammer thinks he might have a point.
"[Gorr is] not a straightforward villain... there's a real complexity to him," Hemsworth said of Gorr. "It's not black and white, what he's doing. He has a truthful motivation, which I think makes for the most interesting kind of villain. You might not agree with how he's going about it, but you understand why he's been tipped over the edge and why he's gone down this path. It's a really challenging one for Thor because the set of questions Gorr's posing does hold some truth—but he can't let Gorr destroy the universe in the process. That, I think, makes this a greater dynamic and not as predictable as the straightforward good gut vs. bad guy scenario we've seen before."
Over the years, Marvel Studios has focused on more and more relatable villains. While the methods of Thanos, Killmonger, and Vulture were nefarious to one degree or another, there was a truth and relatability at the heart of their missions. In many ways, what they wanted mirrors what many of the MCU's heroes want, they just choose to go about it in different ways. Whether Gorr will join that pantheon of acclaim Marvel villains isn't yet clear, but with all the praise the cast and crew have been giving him, audiences look to be in store for quite a performance from Bale as Gorr.
Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters July 8.
Source: Disney twenty-three, via The Direct