Thor: Love and Thunder’s Christian Bale Tested the Highest of Any Marvel Villain

If you’re wondering how Christian Bale will do playing a villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, apparently the answer is that Bale is going to do better than any other MCU villain actor before him – if test audiences are any measure to judge by. Word of early audience reaction to Bale’s performance as Gorr the God Butcher comes directly from Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi, as well as franchise stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, during a recent interview for Thor 4 (via Fandango): 

“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.” 

In the comics, Gorr is a member of an alien race that was very devout in its worship of the gods, despite the calamities they faced. However, when Gorr’s entire family perished, he became sure there were no gods in the universe and was banished from his people. Upon finding out gods were real and active in the universe, Gorr became furious at the tragedy of his life, and obtained a mythical evil sword that could slay gods. Gorr used the powers of the Necrosword to quietly assassinate various gods, until Thor finally caught wind of his scheme and faced him. 

So far, there has been mixed fan reaction to Christian Bale’s Gorr. The look of the MCU version is pretty different from the comics – but understandably so, since Bale’s face is a major commodity. Even with the negative feedback, most fans some to understand that Bale needs the fair chance to prove himself onscreen in his performance before anyone should judge too harshly. 

Chris Hemsworth added that Bale’s performance is “scary” and that the actor brings “Exactly what you’d want, hope, and expect,” in terms of a quality villain for Thor: Love and Thunder. “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.” 

Gorr’s actions in Jason Aaron’s Thor comics not only helped define a new era of Thor, but also set up key pieces of larger Marvel lore involving the symbiotes Venom comes from, and the “god” of that dark race of beings, Knull. So far, it looks like Bale’s Gorr could be doing the same. 

Thor: Love and Thunder will hit theaters on July 8th.