As recentThorart of Christian Bale shows, it’s fascinating to see fan concepts for characters before the official designs are released. Not only does it give the casual viewer a visual aid for their own speculation in that regard, but when the character’s final look is finally revealed, it offers an interesting contrast between what the fans wanted/expected and what the studio ultimately went with. Plus, it’s great when a character looks super weird, because then it’s just a competition between fan artists and movie studios to see who can out-wonky the other.
On that note, remember whenBale signed on to play Gorr the God Butcherin the upcoming sequelThor: Love and Thunder? It’s funny how an actor who claimed he never wanted to work in comic book movies again after theDark Knighttrilogy has just suddenly changed his mind. Was he just that enamored with Gorr? Did Marvel Studios give him a great script to work with? Does he just really like money? The world may never know. But at least it gave fan artists some great fodder.
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One such person isStephen Klein, comic book artist and fan of all things Marvel, DC,Star Wars, and beyond. He took the simple idea of Bale playing the vengeful alien supervillain and ran with it, creating a concept piece showing off what he thinks the English actor might look like once all the fancy computers and digital effects artists do their thing. Taking elements from both the comic book version of Gorr the God Butcher and Bale’s own facial structure (helped along byset photos fromThor: Love and Thunder), Klein crafted an evocative representation of that idea, and it definitely looks like a miserable alien.
From the character’s trademark head tentacles (not unlike those ofthe Twi’leks fromStar Wars) to his flat nose, the comic design is captured well. As for Bale’s likeness, it’s frankly difficult to tell under all the alien stuff. The eyes may betray the actor beneath, but one could just as easily assume this is a completely original design that doesn’t take the actor into account at all. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad piece, of course. Far from it. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if Bale ends up being completely unrecognizable in the finished film as well. Frankly, it’s more likely that Klein used Bale’s characteristics in ways that many average people wouldn’t even notice.
In the Marvel comics,Gorr was a tragic villainwho grew up on an unnamed planet where he was taught to trust in the gods. He lived every day on the brink of starvation, still praying for salvation. But over time, everything was taken from him despite his constant begging for aid. After losing his parents, his wife, and his children, he finally denounced the idea of gods and was exiled by his people for that belief. During his exile, he ended up discovering that gods do exist as he finds 2 of them battling in the desert. He was enraged by the conclusion that, if gods do exist, they refuse to listen to the prayers of lesser people like him, and set out to kill any and all gods he could find.
SinceThor is the God of Thunder, that certainly makes for a perfect opportunity to see Gorr show up in the next movie as the villain. But given a story like that, it’s understandable why this artwork makes him look so spiteful and angry. To be fair, though, that could just mean he’s a regular dude who exists in 2021.
Thor: Love and Thunderis set to release on July 8th, 2022.
