Marvel: Thor 4 changed due to Harry Potter

A new film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder Marks the fourth solo adventure of the character played by Chris Hemsworth. As he accompanies the Guardians of the Galaxy on missions, Thor must take responsibility and save his family from a terrible threat.

He finds his companions Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Corgi (Taika Waititi) but also Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), his former lover who became the mighty Thor thanks to Mjolnir, Thor’s ancient hammer! And the astrophysicist’s new abilities won’t be much to defeat the dreaded Gore (Christian Bale), which is also called the Butcher of the Gods.

Christian Bale is terrified of Gore’s comic book character

For his first foray into the Marvel Universe, Christian Bale plays the iconic villain from the universe of Thor. But the actor was quite worried about the appearance of the Butcher of the Gods in the comics. Indeed, Gore has a special costume in the comics, wearing a cape and a sort of thong. And this outfit scared the hell out of Batman’s former translator.

Christian Bale informed director Taika Waititi about the matter, which quickly cleared up any misunderstandings, the actor confided. The whole movie : “I thought, ‘They’ve got the wrong guy for this’. And then Taika quickly dismissed the idea. He could put whatever he wanted in there later.”

Taika Waititi didn’t want the public to think about Voldemort

Finally, Christian Bale was treated to a rather sober costume for his interpretation of Gore in Thor: Love And Thunder. Son Gor has a human appearance, has very white skin and wears a long hood. And to kill the gods he uses a sword called the Necroblade.

We are far from the comic book character who is some kind of alien with an organic extension of his body and a weapon that shoots out of his hand to kill the gods. And if Taika Waititi changed Gore’s appearance between the comics and the movie, it’s for a very specific reason.

The director didn’t want the audience to think of Voldemort, Harry Potter’s archenemy, when seeing Gore on screen. He explained to IGN that he was afraid people would compare him to the villain played by Ralph Fiennes:

“Unfortunately, his face is similar to Voldemort’s in the comics. So I thought people were bound to make the connection. The essential elements—especially his sword. His story in particular was important to us.”

The character itself and his story pushed Christian Bale to accept the role, in addition to pressure from his children. Despite already being familiar with the world of superheroes and super villains, the actor had no particular interest in joining the Marvel Universe. He didn’t even know what it really was, if we are to believe his statements:

“I was reading this and people were like, ‘Oh, look at that! He’s in the MCU!” And I was like, “What have I done? I didn’t get into that, thank you very much. I wondered what it was and had to ask a question to find out what it meant.”