Thor: Love and Thunder, the most recent film from Marvel Studios, introduced one of the most chilling villains we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to-date. Christian Bale’s take on Gorr the God-Butcher left his mark on fans, despite not having quite as much screen time as some might have expected. His story in the film involved kidnapping a bunch of Asgardian children in order to lure Thor out to the Shadow Realm. As it turns out, that part of his story was even darker at one point.
Marvel concept artist George Hull recently shared some concept paintings from Love and Thunder, revealing the original plan for Gorr’s kidnapping scheme. According to Hull’s post, the initial idea was that Gorr needed the souls of the children to enter Eden and confront Eternity. Take a look!
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“These Thor concept paintings are just a few I created for the director and the team as they considered different options for the final act of the film,” Hull wrote. “(Christian Bale’s Gore character trying to enter Eden using Thor’s axe, the use of the shadow cages, etc.) The early script had the children’s souls as necessary to enter Eden, but in the end Taika chose to simplify the story and settings for the better. My job is to explore various options and possibilities during this early imaginative phase. Thanks [Taika Waititi] for the fun times!”
As Hull explained in the caption, that idea didn’t make it to the final version of the film. Not only was it incredibly dark, but it posed a lot of complicated issues for the story itself, especially if the plan was to have the children survive. Gorr has to make it to Eternity in order to deliver Love and Thunder‘s ending, so he likely would’ve had to sacrifice a couple of kids. That wouldn’t work with his story, given that all of his decisions stemmed from the loss of his daughter.
Fortunately, things changed, and the Bifrost was what Gorr needed to open the gate to Eden. The story was simpler and all of the children got to go home to New Asgard. It’s hard not to see this as an absolute win.
Thor: Love and Thunder will make its streaming debut on Disney+ on September 8th.
