Summary

Thor: Love and Thunder had a promising villain, Gorr, but failed to fully utilize his potential or match his comic book look.
Critics praised the performances of Hemsworth, Portman, and Bale, despite issues with the overall script and humor of the film.
The MCU’s multiverse could offer redemption for characters like Gorr, potentially allowing for a return with original design and story.

Thor: Love and Thunder wasn’t the big success the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed in Phase 4, and one of its biggest mistakes was the design of its villain, which is made worse by how good his original design actually was. The MCU continues expanding with its Multiverse Saga, which has continued the stories of already-established characters while introducing many more. However, the Multiverse Saga hasn’t matched the success of the Infinity Saga and some movies didn’t have the positive reception Marvel hoped for, and among them is Thor: Love and Thunder.

Thor: Love and Thunder reunited viewers with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who, after spending some time with the Guardians of the Galaxy, reunited with Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Taika Waititi) to find and stop Gorr (Christian Bale) from killing all gods. To everyone’s surprise, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) joined the mission as the Mighty Thor, but she was dealing with terminal cancer at the same time. Thor: Love and Thunder had one of the MCU’s most promising villains so far and didn’t seize him, and his original design is only making this even worse one year after the movie’s release.

MCU’s Gorr Concept Art Is So Much Cooler Than What We Got

Gorr Could Have Been A Much More Visually Terrifying Villain

In Thor: Love and Thunder, Gorr was born on an unnamed planet and worshiped the god Rapu. Gorr would pray to Rapu constantly, but the god never answered his prayers and the people of Gorr’s planet died from the heat and lack of food and water. Gorr and his daughter, Love, were the last survivors of the planet, with Gorr pleading to Rapu to provide them with food and water so they could survive. Unfortunately, Love passed away in Gorr’s arms, and as he awaited his death and mourned for Love, he came across Rapu, but the god didn’t care about him or what happened to his people.

Rapu was celebrating that he now had the Necrosword, but he grabbed Gorr by the throat after the latter told him he didn’t deserve to be worshiped. However, the Necrosword chose Gorr, meaning that he would also be cursed by it, but Gorr used it to kill Rapu and vowed to kill all gods. The Necrosword physically changed Gorr, with his eyes becoming yellow, his skin turning grey, and his teeth turning black as well as his saliva. While this was a more imposing look than before he held the Necrosword, Gorr’s original concept art was a lot better.

At one point, Love and Thunder could have had a more comic book-accurate yet still different Gorr, as revealed in concept art.

It’s not uncommon for the MCU’s characters, particularly the villains, to not look like their comic book counterparts, and that’s somewhat expected, as they need to look realistic to a degree. In Gorr’s case, his final look in Thor: Love and Thunder was nothing like his comic book version, making him a lot less horrifying.

At one point, Love and Thunder could have had a more comic book-accurate yet still different Gorr, as revealed in concept art (via Jerad S. Marantz on Art Station) that shows a more terrifying Gor with the “tentacles” in his head, a black cape that seemed to have life of its own as there’s movement in its different parts, and his body covered in black patches, better showing how the Necrosword took over him.

Why Thor 4’s Gorr Mistakes Look Worse Later On

Thor: Love & Thunder Had Some Big Flaws

There was a lot of criticism against Love and Thunder ’s script, with critics noting that Bale did the best he could with what he was given.

Thor: Love and Thunder became one of the MCU’s most divisive movies to date, mostly due to its tone and humor, which tried too hard to match that of Thor: Ragnarok. However, what critics and general audiences agreed on was that the best parts of Love and Thunder were the performances of Hemsworth, Portman, and Bale. The latter, in particular, got a lot of praise for bringing the emotion and horror necessary to play the character – however, there was a lot of criticism against Love and Thunder’s script, with critics noting that Bale did the best he could with what he was given.

The more Bale, Hemsworth, and Portman are in other projects, the clearer it is that Thor: Love and Thunder completely wasted their talents and chemistry, particularly Bale’s, as this was his first and potentially last MCU project. Knowing how visually imposing Gorr could have really been makes Thor: Love and Thunder’s Gorr mistakes even worse, as they show everything he could have been and how much greater Bale’s performance could have been.

How The MCU Could Still Redeem Gorr

The Multiverse Offers Many Opportunities To Redeem Some Characters

Gorr could get his original design and a different story thanks to the multiverse, as he could return as a variant.

Gorr’s role in Thor: Love and Thunder was disappointing, but he was given closure as he found Eternity and brought his daughter back to life, but he died as a consequence of the constant use of the Necrosword. However, the MCU’s multiverse offers many opportunities for deceased characters to return, and there are many who deserve redemption in different ways. Gorr could get his original design and a different story thanks to the multiverse, as he could return as a variant in a future Phase or if the MCU goes through a reboot after Avengers: Secret Wars.

Source: Jerad S. Marantz (via Art Station)