Christian Bale To Play 'Thor: Love And Thunder' Villain Gorr The God Butcher

Christian Bale has lived long enough to see himself become the villain — and a Marvel villain at that. The Ford v Ferrari actor has been confirmed to be playing the villain in Thor: Love and Thunder, Taika Waititi's follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok. Bale will be playing Gorr the Butcher, an alien creature who sets out on a mission to kill as many gods as he can.

Marvel Studios confirmed at the Disney Investors conference Thursday that Bale is set to play the Thor: Love and Thunder villain, Gorr the Butcher, after months of rumblings that the former Dark Knight was set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Gorr the Butcher, which we had speculated might be the chief antagonist of the fourth Thor film, is a relatively new villain introduced in the Marvel Comics by writer Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribic only 7 years ago. He is an alien creature whose homeworld was destroyed despite his peoples' prayers to their gods, leading to his spite for the divine. Convinced that the gods have abandoned their creations and driven by hatred, he sets out on a mission across the cosmos to kill as many gods as he can, naturally bringing him face-to-face with the God of Thunder.

Full details for Love and Thunder have yet to be revealed yet, but the story will bring Natalie Portman's Jane Foster back to the MCU for the first time since Thor: The Dark World. Portman's Jane is expected to take up the Thor mantle in the film, as the character did in the comics — an arc that came from Aaron's run on Thor, which suggests that Waititi is taking heavy inspiration from Aaron's writing and will combine the two stories.

The film will also reportedly show Tessa Thompson's character Valkyrie "As new king [of Asgard], she needs to find her queen," according to the actress at Comic-Con last year.

Thor: Love and Thunder is scheduled to hit theaters on May 6, 2022.