When Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) races into theaters on July 8th, he’s going to look vastly different than his comic-book counterpart. While both of the versions still feature a grey bipedal alien, Bale’s version is missing the character’s iconic tendrils that extend out of his head. Also gone is the character’s dark black robe. The live-action version also sports a nose while comic Gorr has a flat face.
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Part of the reason behind the change in looks, according to Thor: Love and Thunder helmer Taika Waititi, is that the comic version looked too similar to Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series.
“His face in the comics, unfortunately, does kind of resemble Voldemort,” the director said in a press tour winterview with IGN. “So I was like ‘people are just automatically going to make that connection.’ So we decided to depart from that design and sort of keep elements of the tone, and the fact that he had the sword. Really, it was his story that was the most important thing for us.”
When we spoke to Bale, the actor said Gorr’s comic look simply wasn’t possible with his take on the role.
“I was coming off of a film where it had been necessary to be sort of rather lacking in muscle,” Bale explained. “And then I saw the images and thought, ‘Well, that’s not gonna be possible… and this g-string thing that’s going on there.’ He looked in the comic books like physically, you know, someone to reckon with though. And I said, ‘Well, you know, that’s just not gonna be possible in the state I’m in. And we literally have three days between me finishing one film and heading over to Australia for the quarantine and whatnot. I like to usually have much more time in between, but the pandemic meant that things got worked out that way.
Taika Waititi, who directed Thor: Ragnarok, returns to direct Thor: Love and Thunder. He also co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. The film and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt, Jaimie Alexander, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Jeff Goldblum, and Vin Diesel.
Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters on July 8th.
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