After a lot of speculation over the past few months, Christian Bale has now been confirmed as the villain – or at least, one of the villains – in Thor: Love and Thunder. The casting news comes from an Entertainment Tonight interview with Tessa Thompson, in which she stated:
“Some familiar faces, some new people into the mix… Christian Bale is going to play our villain, which is going to be fantastic.”
Information on the role has described the villain as “alien and otherworldly,” which doesn’t bode well for previous rumors that said Bale might play Dario Agger (also known as “The Minotaur”). It does, however, open up the possibility for Bale to portray such notable villains as Gladiator or Gorr, but we may have to wait a while longer to get any concrete news on that front.
Of course, this wouldn’t be Bale’s first foray into the world of superhero films. The British actor played the Caped Crusader himself in Christopher Nolan’s exceptional Batman trilogy, a series that is widely accepted as the pinnacle of superhero films. Their dark and realistic tone set the stage for more serious movies in the genre like Todd Phillips’ 2019 mega-hit Joker.
The first two Thor films were markedly more somber and serious in tone than 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, a whimsical and humorous adventure for the Asgardian and a supporting cast of other MCU favorites like Hulk and Valkyrie. Returning director Taika Watiti is likely to lean into that same tone in Thor’s fourth solo movie, but if recent reports are to be believed, we can expect to see Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) go through her cancer arc from the comics as well.
While we may be waiting a while on more story details about Love and Thunder, we might not have to wait quite as long to see the God of Thunder in action again, as some reports have stated that he could appear in 2021’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Thor: Love and Thunder is slated to release on November 5th, 2021.
