THor is a god and the son of Odin, an Avenger, as well. Of course, he is the God of Thunder. This divinity may pose problems in the future Thor: Love and ThunderGorr The God Butcher, who is the antagonist of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next entry, has been revealed.
Love and Thunder, which hits theaters on July 8, Gorr will be played by Christian Bale—making his first appearance in a superhero movie since The Dark Knight RisesIt was published in 2012. As seen in the second trailer, he’s a pale, chalky white humanoid with orange eyes, a sword, and a vendetta against the gods.
“The only ones who gods care about is themselves,” he says in the trailer. “So this is my vow: All gods will die.”
What is Gorr? And why do he love gods so much. Unlike many villains from Marvel Comics, Gorr the God Butcher doesn’t have decades of history to untangle as the character made his comics debut only a few years ago. This comics story is a bit complicated because it involves time travel.
Gorr, the God Butcher: Who is he?
Gorr made his debut in the first arc of writer Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribić’s acclaimed Thor: The God of Thunder2012 comic series. This story takes place in three different timelines and eventually merges. It also reveals Thor’s long, complicated history with God Butcher.
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Gorr lived long ago on an alien planet where there was constant famine and natural disasters. Despite this, the people of the planet devoutly prayed to gods who never acknowledged—let alone helped—them. Gorr, who had lost his faith completely in the gods after suffering the terrible deaths of his loved ones, saw a miraculous event: Two gods, one male and one female, fell out of the sky to land in front him, heavily injured. Gorr was unable to help the one god who had the nerve to call for assistance. Gorr grabbed the other god’s sword and cut down the god. This would be his first butchering.
Gorr was armed with All-Black, the Necrosword – a powerful and shape-shifting weapon that could transform into any kind of sword – and went on to kill gods all over the galaxy, until he met a young Thor in Iceland in 893 A.D. Thor, who at this point was not yet worthy of holding Mjölnir, was hanging out with Vikings and enjoying the perks of being a god. Thor manages to defeat God Butcher with help from some mortal Vikings after nearly being shot. Gorr is not killed, however, and instead, he’s inspired to raise the level of his God Killing.
Thor discovers in the Marvel Universe that the gods have been killed again. He sets off on a mission to figure out what’s happening, and eventually is reunited with a much more ambitious Gorr. He’s been killing gods, and then harvesting their blood for travel to the End of Time (forcing gods of time under threat to death to perform his will). He keeps certain gods alive and enslaves others so that they can work on The Godbomb. It is a wicked weapon which, when activated will instantly kill all gods at every time point.
Thanks to the time travel, present-day Thor finds himself with the Young Icelandic Thor from Gorr’s past. They’re joined by a future version of Thor who has, as King of Asgard, been fighting off Gorr for 900 years because the God Butcher wanted Thor, who bested him once ages ago, to be the last god to fall. The trio is only able to defeat Gorr when he realizes, with horror, that he has effectively become a god—the very thing he hates. The combination of this realization with the attacks by the other older Thors makes him feel weak enough to allow Young Thor to cut his head.
Gorr, like gods, was resurrected. This is the 2019 series Thor, King, which starred the older future version of Thor seen in Gorr’s debut arc, he’s brought back to life by an evil future version of Loki, but he quickly goes rogue and fuses with his sword, All-Black. He rises above godhood and becomes a powerful force of nature. However, he eventually falls to the level of an amnesiac mortal by the end. It’s a good read, but it’s likely that the choicest cuts of the God Butcher’s story will be pulled from that initial comic arc.
How will Gorr look in Love and Thunder
Love and Thunder seems to be heavily borrowing from Aaron’s Thor: The God of ThunderComic run that lasted seven years. There’s a shot in the trailer that’s basically an exact, detail-for-detail copy of an illustration Ribić drew of Thor overlooking the giant corpse of one of Gorr’s victims. Jane Foster (Nathalie portman) took over the role of Thor in the pages ThunderThe film draws clearly from the whole series.
Chris Hemworth, the Thor: Love and ThunderTrailer
Marvel Studios
There will be differences, however, as this is the MCU. Jane Foster wasn’t involved in the God Butcher arc in the comics, and there are a host of MCU-specific characters or events—like King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) or Thor hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy—that weren’t part of the comics. It seems highly unlikely. Love and ThunderThe same ending will be used for multiple Thor versions. (It would be the third MCU movie in a row to prominently feature alternate versions of the same character, so perhaps we’re due for a break.)
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Still, Gorr’s basic backstory—a man with a vendetta against all gods because they didn’t answer the prayers of the people who needed and believed in them is strong stuff, and you can easily see it slotting into the MCU.
Gorr looks a little different in the movie than in the comics, as he’s more alien on the page, sporting extra tentacles on his head. On the MCU, Gorr looks more like a black-and-white Christian Bale. The blade of his sword is also different. In the trailer, it appears to be a nondescript longsword, while in the comic it’s an amorphous gooey black blade. (It would later be revealed that All-Black is the first ever Symbiote—the slimy black stuff that the Spider-Man villain Venom is made of. It seems highly unlikely that this is the case given the complex film rights ownership division between Sony and Marvel Studios. Love and Thunder, especially as All-Black being a symbiote was not at all a factor in Gorr’s first comic appearance.) Gorr’s movie counterpart appears also to be capable of creating inky, black minions named Black Berserkers that will do his bidding.
When Gorr is removed from the cutting block, we will be able to see which aspects were left. Thor: Love and ThunderPremieres July 8. But, The God of Thunder needs to be available. And, while there’s no evidence whatsoever that the mostly standalone Disney+ series Moon KnightAny crossovers with the Thor sequel… all those Egyptian gods might want to look over their shoulder.
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