The Dark Knight trilogy star Christian Bale is returning to the superhero genre as the primary antagonist to Chris Hemsworth's Thor. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced the Batman alumn will portray Gorr the God Butcher in director Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder.
Introduced in Marvel Comics' Thor: God of Thunder #2, Gorr was raised on a nameless planet by parents who taught him to revere the gods in order to ensure the safety of his family. However, every member of Gorr's family perishes over the years, including a wife and children of his own, causing him to lose all faith in the deities he's been raised to worship. Exiled for expressing his belief that the gods do not exist, Gorr is proven wrong when a chance encounter with two deities fighting in the desert results in him being bonded with All-Black the Necrosword, granting him the ability to set forth on a crusade to kill all gods.
"I'm pleased to confirm that Academy Award-winning actor Christian Bale is playing the villain, Gorr the God Butcher," Feige announced during Marvel Studios' presentation at Disney's Investor Day. Bale will join a cast of returning Thor stars that includes Hemsworth in the titular role, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. Production on Thor: Love and Thunder will begin in January 2021 in Australia with Taika Waititi returning to the director's chair after having helmed the previous installment, Thor: Ragnarok. Waititi co-wrote the screenplay for the fourth Thor film with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
Thor: Love and Thunder will be based on writer Jason Aaron's The Mighty Thor storyline in which Jane Foster becomes Mighty Thor, Goddess of Thunder. In the comic book story, Foster is diagnosed with cancer and is later able to wield Thor's hammer. Though she is granted extraordinary abilities while in possession of the hammer, the process temporarily cures her body of toxins, including the chemotherapy used to treat her, meaning each transformation could bring her closer to death.
The next chapter of the Thor film series will also feature an appearance by Chris Pratt as Star-Lord. The possibility of a crossover between the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor films was hinted at by the end of Avengers: Endgame, when the God of Thunder hitched a ride with the intergalactic team as he prepared to search the cosmos for a new purpose in life.
It may be worth noting that All-Black the Necrosword is the first symbiote in Marvel Comics lore, making it a member of the same species as Spider-Man adversary Venom. Provided the Marvel Studios' incarnation of Gorr retains the same origin as his comic book counterpart, Thor: Love and Thunder could mark the first introduction of symbiote's to the MCU.
Thor: Love and Thunder is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 6, 2022.