Aside from the growing anticipation for Natalie Portman's arrival as Lady Thor and Chris Hemsworth's return as the titular character in Thor: Love and Thunder, fans are also thrilled to meet the upcoming film's big bad, Gorr The God Butcher, played by Academy Award winner Christian Bale.
Bale's Gorr won't just be another standard villain we've seen who's typically hungry for power. The villain actually only has one purpose, to murder all gods in the universe, placing Thor's fate in jeopardy.
In a recent interview with Disney's D23 Magazine (via The Direct), director Taika Waititi and Marvel vet Chris Hemsworth discussed Christian Bale's antagonist role as Gorr The God Butcher in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder.
"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?"
Hemsworth went on to discuss what makes Gorr dissimilar from other Marvel villains, noting that he has a 'truthful motivation' and fans might not agree with him.
"[Gorr is] not a straightforward villain... there's a real complexity to him. 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," Hemsworth added. "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."
Although the MCU made some major modifications with Gorr's live-action look compared to the Marvel Comics, it looks like Waititi preserved the villain’s origin from the source material. Just like in the comics, Gorr despises gods because he used to worship them his whole life, and not a single one of them came when his whole family died from starvation.
Luckily, while traveling in a desert, Gorr witnessed a clash between two gods, a purple-skinned god in gold armor (Celestial) and a dark entity (Knull). While the two of them are unconscious, Gorr took a risk and steals Necrosword from one of them — a weapon that granted him godlike abilities and allowed him to slaughter every single god he encountered, earning the title, God Butcher.
The Thor franchise doesn't usually lay back in terms of introducing villains. Starting from Destroyer, Malekith, and Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, it appears that Gorr is set to overthrow all of them. Aside from Bale's triumphant career, Gorr's significance might cause the actor to stay in the MCU in the long run, until the original owner of the Necrosword, Knull, take back the mighty weapon.
Thor: Love and Thunder will premiere in theaters on July 8.
Also Read: Which is Stronger: Gorr's All Black Necrosword or Thor's Hammer?
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