Thor: Love And Thunder Merchandise Leak Provides Our Best Look Yet At Christian Bale's Gorr

Marvel Studios is right in the middle of releasing four consecutive Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film follow-ups that started with "Spider-Man: No Way Home" in December 2021. "Doctor Stange in the Multiverse of Madness" follows in May, and the long-awaited "Thor: Love and Thunder" still expects to hit theaters in July 2022. That's all before "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" rounds out this year's slate before the studio looks ahead to 2023.

Although "Thor: Love and Thunder" is just months away, many details surrounding the film remain under wraps. We do know that Natalie Portman will reprise her role as Jane Foster from the earlier "Thor" films and will be swinging the hammer herself this time around. And then there's the fact that Christian Bale has joined the cast as the villain Gorr the God-Butcher, who holds quite the grudge against the various gods of the universe in the comics (via Collider). Bale is the latest critically acclaimed actor to take on a villain role in director Taika Waititi's "Thor" films; between him and Cate Blanchett, who plays "Thor: Ragnarok" villain Hela, Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) most recent adversaries have three Academy Awards between them.

While MCU fans await a proper trailer for "Thor: Love and Thunder," merchandise leaks have started emerging on social media, giving fans the first chance to see Gorr's character design.

Images that appear to be of "Thor: Love and Thunder" merchandise recently made their way to Reddit's r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers. These images showcase Chris Hemsworth's titular hero, as well as Jane Foster holding the hammer, King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Guardians of the Galaxy members Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Groot (Vin Diesel). Of course, the character fans are most concerned with is Christian Bale's Gorr, who appears as a starkly grey, human-like figure with what looks like scarring on his arms and head. As noted by u/Matapple13, who started the thread, the image of Gorr also has a caption that reads: "Wielding a strange and terrifying weapon, Gorr will let nothing stand in his way." 

The leaked image is light on details beyond that basic look into Gorr's character design, which comes across as surprisingly human-like given that the character is definitely some sort of alien being. Redditor u/Echo_1409 commented that they believe the studio is purposefully hiding details about Gorr's motivation, joking that even trailers for the upcoming film might not dish on exactly what Gorr is doing or how he'll encounter Thor (although as u/Nowarclasswar points out, fans need only look at the name Gorr the God-Butcher to figure that out). It also seems that some Marvel comics fans might not be thrilled at this first glimpse. In the same Reddit discussion, another user noted that Gorr's distinctly human-shaped nose stands in stark contrast to the character's design in the comic run, in which he looks a bit more reptilian and seems distinctly larger than the human-sized gods of Asgard.

Others, though, trust that fans are in for a treat. "Calling it now [Gorr is] gonna be one of the best villains of this phase," u/Realcbear wrote in a comment. "Bale doesn't mess around."