Thor: Love & Thunder BTS video shows Christian Bale being transformed into Gorr the God Butcher. The god-killing Gorr has only been a character in Marvel Comics since 2013. But the vengeful alien is so popular with fans that he’s already made his debut in the MCU.

Some fans unfortunately were not happy with the way Gorr the God Butcher was transformed for his MCU premiere in Thor: Love and Thunder. In the comics the character is very alien indeed, sporting weird head appendages and a decidedly inhuman face. For the movie however, the decision was made not to go the motion-capture route and really recreate the look of Gorr from the comics. Instead, VFX makeup artists went to work on Gorr actor Bale, painting him an ashy color from head to toe and adding distinctive tattoos and scars to his face and body.

Related: Why Thor: Love & Thunder's Reviews Are So Divided

The resulting Love and Thunder version of Gorr the God Butcher may not have thrilled all Marvel Comics fans, but did provide a showcase for Bale’s abilities as an actor. Now, the studio responsible for pulling off Bale’s transformation into Gorr has shared some of their process via a time-lapse video showing the actor in the makeup chair. See the clip from Odd Studio in the space below (via The Direct):

Bale’s transformation into Gorr may not have been extreme enough for hardcore Marvel fans, but it’s clear that he did undergo quite a bit of work to become the movie version of the God Butcher. But as Kevin Feige recently pointed out when defending the decision not to use motion-capture to create Love and Thunder’s version of Gorr, the makeup job on Bale was not so heavy that it restricted his ability to give a performance. It’s obvious that the ultimate intention was to capture the spirit of the comic book Gorr the God Butcher while still affording Bale the chance to make the character his own.

The decision not to squander Bale’s acting talents by burying him under motion-capture CGI effects indeed allowed the Oscar-winner to craft a memorable villain in Love and Thunder. The question now is whether Bale will get a chance to come back at some point and reprise Gorr in a future MCU movie. Gorr of course died at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder, but with the multiverse now in full effect, no character resurrection is ever off the table. As the above video shows, Bale is certainly willing to undergo a rigorous makeup job in order to play a character, so that part of it should not be an obstacle to the actor returning for another go-around as Gorr (or some multiverse variant thereof).

Source: Odd Studio (via The Direct)