As Marvel Comics readers know, when Gorr the God Butcher was first introduced in the pages of Thor: God of Thunder he carried with him All-Black, the necrosword that he used to slay gods across the cosmos. At the time that it was introduced it just seemed like a cool sword, but it was later revealed that All-Black was originally the weapon of none other than Knull, the deity that creator of the symbiotes, making All-Black the first symbiote. So after years of continuity, Marvel fans know that Gorr has a connection to Venom in a major way, but the question has lingered about how Marvel Studios will address this in Thor: Love and Thunder, and they may have just revealed how they’re going to handle it.
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While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Love and Thunder star Tessa Thompson premiered a clip from the upcoming movie with a clue to this. Though largely a funnier scene between her character Valkyrie, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Natalie Portman’s Thor, and Taika Waititi’s Korg, the scene features some key dialogue about Christian Bale’s version of Gorr. Speaking about the antagonist, Hemsworth’s god of thunder says he moves “through the Shadow realm….The atmosphere there has darkness like no other, it’s as if color fears to tread…”
It seems like we’ve already gotten a look at this Shadow Realm in the trailers for the film, but it also seems to indicate how Marvel Studios is handling Gorr’s connection to Knull, they’ve nixed it in favor of the “Shadow Realm.” Originally created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in the pages of Tales of Suspense, the Shadow Realm is a fixture of Marvel Comics Lore, and one that was later tied to Knull and other entities in The King in Black story arc.
Since Gorr and his sword, and the Shadow Realm for that matter, are tied to non-Spider-Man comics, Marvel Studios seems to have no problem in using them. The complexity of Sony’s ownership of all film rights to the webslinger and his cohorts (Venom and Knull included) likely means that they can’t really reference anything about All-Black’s comic book history. As a result, it’s possible that Gorr’s weapon will get a new name and origin for the big screen, and this clip seems to confirm it.
Thor: Love and Thunder flies into theaters on Friday, July 8th.
