Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi has heaped praise on Christian Bale for his portrayal of Gorr the God Butcher in the upcoming Thor movie.
During an interview with Associated Press, the 46-year-old filmmaker called out Bale’s performance.
“In my humble opinion, we have probably the best villain that Marvel’s ever had in Christian Bale,” he said.
The upcoming Thor sequel depicts the legendary Norse god’s search for inner peace.
Unfortunately, his spiritual gap year is short-lived as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) turns up looking for vengeance. But is Thor a match for the infamous cosmic villain after the events of Avengers: Endgame
“Thor is just trying to figure out his purpose, trying to figure out exactly who he is and why he’s a hero or whether he should be a hero,” said Waititi. “I guess you could call it a midlife crisis.”
“It’s a great, really fun, weird little group of heroes, a new team for Thor with Korg, Valkyrie, and The Mighty Thor.”
Of course, his search for identity leads Thor on a journey of self-discovery where he even gets a rather striking new look at one point. Worse still, he runs into his old girlfriend, Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman) who seemed to be doing a lot better than him.
In fact, she’s suited up as Thor, and wielding his legendary hammer. Bummer.
“The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace,” reads the official synopsis. “But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods.”
Marvel recently revealed a cool new poster depicting Jane Foster as the mighty Thor, while another separate image gave us our first glimpse of Russell Crowe as Zeus, the legendary Greek god.
How Thor will take on Gorr the God Butcher remains to be seen… but Jane Foster’s stint as Thor will follow the comic books even closer than we thought.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
