Thor: Love and Thunder: See Christian Bale Turn Into Gorr for Marvel Reshoots

Christian Bale has long been known to be an actor obsessively committed to his roles, dropping or gaining substantial weight or significantly altering his look to get the needed appearance for the role at hand. Because of that, it should come as no surprise the Oscar-winning actor was perfectly alright sitting in the makeup chair for hours on end to play the villainous Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder.

While the actor originally shaved his head for the role during the film’s principal photography, he was unable to do so with reshoots. Because of that, Marvel Studios hired a special effects firm to come up with a life-like bald cap the production could use to hide his hair, providing a more accurate look to what Taika Waititi and company were able to capture during the first round of filming. Earlier this week, SFX artist Bart Mixon shared multiple looks of Bale’s transformation into Gorr the God Butcher, which you can see below.

Earlier this month, Waititi revealed it was Bale who tested the best with sample audiences out of any other villain in the Marvel stable.

“I’d say he’s the most sympathetic villain they’ve had. He’s also tested the highest out of any villain that Marvel’s had,” Waititi said. He later joked: “Yeah he’s a great actor. And the only other thing he’s done is this film called Empire of the Sun. And that was his last job. He was eleven. It’s been an incredible journey for him. Just to kind of help… sort of re-kickstart his career.” 

Thor star Chris Hemsworth added that Gorr is exactly the type of villains audiences have wanted.

“It’s nuance, complexity, depth – a sort of quirkiness to it, which I didn’t see on the page. And with any sort of classic villain, the fact that you find yourselves empathizing or asking questions that they’re asking, or the ideas that they’re posing, it’s not just stock standard sort of evil villain.” He also joked, “Which is great if you’re playing the hero and everyone’s rooting for the villain.” 

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.

What other surprises do you think are in store for Thor: Love and Thunder? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!