Thor: Love & Thunder Concept Art Features An X-Men Villain

Early concept art for Thor: Love and Thunder reveals the presence of a mythical X-Men villain in Omnipotent City. The fourth installment of Marvel's Thor franchise was released in July. While the film has hit a major milestone at the box office, surpassing the franchise's beloved previous installment Thor: Ragnarok (2017) within a shorter box office window, it has experienced a mixed reception from critics and fans. Complaints cite the movie's over-the-top comedic tone, effects used throughout the film, continuity issues in the story, and the film's use of its villain, Gorr The God Butcher.

Of course, no film is perfect, and Thor 4 has still massively outperformed the divisive second installment in the franchise, Thor: The Dark World, both in terms of critical and audience reviews and numbers. Since the release of Thor: Love and Thunder, plenty of early concept art has been released by artists who worked on the film. Some released images have alternate looks for characters, including an impressively intimidating take on Christian Bale villain Gorr. Concept art has also revealed moments that were ultimately scrapped from the film, including a deleted Lady Sif scene and some cameos from key MCU players.

Concept art for Thor 4 shared by artist Sung Choi via Instagram offers an MCU X-Men tease, with the appearance of Cyttorak, the mythical entity behind the power of the Juggernaut through the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, sitting on a throne in Omnipotent City. See the post below:

In the image, Cyttorak sits on a tall red and gold throne, surrounded by a few other important players. The film's Omnipotent City scenes are a visual treat and are chockful of references to other gods from the comics, Zeus being the most important player and the reason Thor travels there in the first place. Thor 4's Omnipotence City tie-in also set the groundwork for the post-credits Hercules cameo. This X-Men cameo takes the Easter Eggs to the next level, offering yet another nod to mutants within the MCU.

The reveal that concept artists included Cyttorak among the Omnipotence City deities in Thor: Love and Thunder comes after the appearance of Patrick Stewart as Professor X in Doctor Strange 2 and the direct mention of mutants in the Ms. Marvel finale. Though Marvel's SDCC laid out plans for the MCU's phases 5 and 6, it didn't include any talk of mutants, so it's clear that the studio is ramping up to tackle mutants at some point in the future. With Namor's role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sparking talk of yet another bread crumb in the MCU's mutants trail and Doctor Strange 2's potential confirmation that Cyttorak exists in the MCU, perhaps Cyttorak and other iconic X-Men characters will move from the concept art to the screen sooner rather than later.

Source: Sung Choi