The next Marvel adventure Thor: Love and Thunder sees the return of the God of Thunder to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for his fourth solo adventure. And this time, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is up against a formidable foe in Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher. Fans have noticed that the Gorr seen in the trailer and teasers looks nothing like the character from Marvel Comics. Taika Waititi, the director, has now explained why.
Gorr is more muscular and almost always naked in the comics. While those details were changed for practical reasons, the most noticeable difference in Gorr’s appearance for the film was his face. Gorr appears almost human in the film, whereas in the comics, he lacks a nose. Taika stated that he did not want to be associated with the iconic Harry Potter villain Voldemort, who was also pale and lacked a nose.
Taika said of Gorr to IGN, “His face in the comics unfortunately does kind of resemble Voldemort.” So I thought, ‘people will just naturally make that connection.’ So we decided to deviate from that design while retaining elements of the tone and the fact that he possessed a sword. Really, the most important thing for us was his story.”
Christian Bale previously discussed why the character in the film is less muscular than the one in the comics. “I was coming off of a film where it had been necessary to be sort of rather lacking in muscle,” he explained to ComicBook.com. Then I saw the images and thought, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen…’ In the comic books, he appeared to be a physical force to be reckoned with. And I said, ‘Well, you know, that’s just not going to be possible in my current state.’ And we literally have three days between me finishing one film and flying over to Australia for quarantine and such.’
I prefer to have much more time in between, but the pandemic meant that things had to be done that way.”
Thor: Love and Thunder is a Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 film. The film, which also stars Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson, will be released in India on July 7, a day before it opens in the United States and much of the rest of the world.