Marvel fans had to wait a long time to finally get that glance at Thor: Love and Thunder's Gorr the God Butcher, and though the design has its detractors, some newly surfaced concept art shows that Christian Bale's villain could have ended up looking much different.
The MCU's Gorr is played by Bale, whose performance in Thor: Love and Thunder has won him plenty of praise for providing some of the movie’s best moments. However, that hasn’t stopped many from mocking the character design as a mere Voldemort copy, event though a decent amount of effort went precisely towards avoiding that comparison.
In this case, the discarded artwork comes courtesy of artist Ken Barthelmey (@kenbarthelmey), who worked on Thor: Love and Thunder as a Creature and Character Designer. On his Instagram page, Barthelmey leaves some interesting drafts of what could have been for Gorr. Barthelmey notes that both of his Gorr mockups were made before Bale had been cast in the role, so naturally, the alien or more mythological beast style that is seen here was tossed aside once such a recognizable face had jumped on board.
Among the most notable features in these ghastly-looking Gorrs are the goatee beard, his crooked teeth, hollow eyes, and peculiar skull, all of which leave the God Butcher looking like a different kind of alien. Besides this artwork, Barthelmey recently shared another example of what Russell Crowe would have looked like as Satan, which was the role originally planned for the actor. Instead, Crowe ended up making an appearance as a cocky Zeus who perfectly portrays why Gorr the God Butcher hates the gods so much.
Although Bale's role as Gorr has been widely praised, the movie doesn’t find as much time within Thor: Love and Thunder's relatively short runtime to include that many scenes or moments with him, something that has been brought up by some critics and fans as one of the film’s faults. Thor: Love and Thunder has proven to be divisive among typical MCU audiences, currently sitting at fourth among the worse-reviewed Marvel Studios movies on Rotten Tomatoes, for example, while not faring much better in audience scores on the internet.
Despite a promising start at the box office, Thor: Love and Thunder has fallen off, thus possibly compromising whatever financial goals Disney initially had for the film, especially at a time when Spider-Man and Top Gun: Maverick have proven that it’s again feasible for blockbusters to rake in a billion dollars. That trend will probably continue to fuel debates over how much momentum the MCU has lost in Phase Four.
Thor: Love and Thunder is currently available on Disney Plus.
Source: Ken Barthelmey | Instagram