The trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder revealed Christian Bale as its main villain, Gorr the God Butcher, and his incredible look manages to correct the biggest mistake of Thor: The Dark World. With Thor: Love and Thunder, the God of Thunder is now the only MCU hero to receive four solo movies. This sequel introduces Russell Crowe as Zeus and reintroduces Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, last seen in Thor: The Dark World and absent in Thor: Ragnarok. But it's the addition of Bale as Gorr the God Butcher that held the most mystery until his reveal in the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer.
An initial teaser served to establish the comedic tone of Thor: Love and Thunder and set up Portman’s return to the franchise, though very little was explained regarding specific plot details or development. This changed with the release of the full Thor: Love and Thunder trailer, which provided an extended look at many of the new characters, including the first images of Bale’s Gorr. Introduced in Jason Aaron’s Thor: God of Thunder comics, Gorr is a being that is bent on the destruction of all gods after suffering the death of his wife and children. Though little was shown of the villain’s origin story in the trailer, it seems that the MCU’s take on the character will hold a similar all-destroying plan.
The MCU has a history of changing the appearance of their characters from the comics – in costume and/or physicality – but the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer confirmed that this is not the case with Gorr. With a human-looking form, from the pale white skin and smooth, scarred head to the bright orange eyes, Bale’s Gorr compares well to his comic appearance. This is a huge relief for the Thor franchise, as the actor’s stripped-back, simplistic look avoids the mistake that Thor: The Dark World made with Christopher Eccleston’s villain, Malekith. Eccleston was a promising prospect in the 2013 Thor follow-up. But the amount of makeup and prosthetics under which he was placed served only to stifle his performance and belittle his villain through a laughable appearance. Through costuming and makeup, Eccleston’s role in Thor: The Dark World was made redundant, transforming the actor to the extent that it could have been anybody playing the villain, and this helped to ruin the Thor trilogy.
Bale’s appearance as Gorr the God Butcher promises that the franchise will not be making the same mistake again. Bale’s minute facial expressions and subtleties in his line delivery are among his main attributes as an actor, and by stripping down his Gorr appearance to emphasize the actor’s natural face beneath, the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer demonstrates that these nuances will be seen in the movie. Unlike Malekith, the decision to provide Bale with a far more simplified appearance means that the audience will be able to watch his performance to a greater extent than the franchise has allowed in the past. This, in turn, will enable the sequel to provide a greater connection between the audience and Bale's Gorr the God Butcher, aligning them in a manner very similar to what was achieved with Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
Allowing the audience to see the actor’s performance makes the decision to cast Bale even better. Gorr is a villain built on heartbreak, so it is crucial that Thor: Love and Thunder presents him as sympathetic to make his motivations and subsequent actions believable. In contrast to Thor: The Dark World, by prioritizing Bale’s performance over an attempt to make Gorr look typically alien, Thor: Love and Thunder could show that the franchise’s best villains are those that appear ostensibly human.
