Thor: Love and Thunder: Christian Bale on the monstrous origins of Gorr the God Butcher

Last Updated on July 1, 2022

Gorr the God Butcher has been teased as one of Marvel’s best villains, something the first reactions to Thor: Love and Thunder have seemingly confirmed. While speaking with Total Film, Christian Bale discussed the “great pleasure” of playing Gorr in the upcoming Thor sequel.

“It’s a lot easier to play a villain than it is to play a hero,” Christian Bale said. “Everyone is fascinated with bad guys, immediately.” The actor added that although Gorr is certainly a monster and a butcher, his motivations are understandable. “The beauty of it is that Taika [Waititi] can make it bloody hilarious – and then really moving as well in this story,” Bale explained. “I don’t know if it’s pushing it too much to say sympathy, but certainly, you sort of understand maybe why this guy is making awful decisions, and he is a monster and he is a butcher. But there is possibly a little understanding of why he came to be that way.” Christian Bale said that Gorr really started to come to life when he found himself in the final make-up.

You don’t really know exactly what you’re doing with a character like that until you see it completely. It’s in your imagination and we didn’t have that long. You know, we talked about it during quarantine and in an abstract way, but then put it on and worked out, ‘alright, this was a pious man with tattoos and he’s cut those off and so we’d have all of those scars.’ And that’s when you really get to start playing with it and experiment as you film.

The nearly monochromatic look of Gorr is striking, and with an actor like Christian Bale behind him, we should be in for something very special. Of course, we’ve had great actors tackle Marvel villains before that didn’t quite land, so I hope that those first reactions are accurate.

The official synopsis for Thor: Love and Thunder:

The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Thor: Love and Thunder will hit theaters on July 8, 2022.