The fourth Thor film will bring back the character's last surviving friend in an adventure that will pit them against Christian Bale's villain.
Deadline reports that Jamie Alexander will reprise her role as Lady Sif in Thor: Love and Thunder, while Christian Bale's casting as Gorr the God Butcher was confirmed at yesterday's Walt Disney Investor's Day presentation. Lady Sif was last seen in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, while this is Bale's first superhero movie role since his stint as Batman ended in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises.
Bale's casting has been known for quite some time, but his character has been shrouded in mystery. It was stated to be a motion-capture role, implying an otherworldly villain, and Gorr the God Butcher was a popular theory. Gorr is a powerful alien from a nameless planet who possesses a sword that can manifest weapons and a berserker army made from endless darkness. The villain is a recent addition to Marvel comics, first debuting in January 2013.
Lady Sif is one of Thor's oldest friends and fought alongside him and the Warriors Three. Sif was conspicuously absent from Thor: Ragnarok, with her absence being explained by Loki banishing her from Asgard. It's probably a good thing she wasn't in Asgard during the events of Ragnarok given that Thor's sister Hela wiped out the entire Asgardian army and killed the Warriors Three, and it's likely that Sif would've been her next victim. Sif's return has been desired for several years, as she was one of the most interesting supporting characters in Thor's section of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given that Love and Thunder is already bringing back characters like Jane Foster who have also been absent since The Dark World, fans speculated that Sif could be returning next. Alexander fueled speculation that Sif could be coming back after she volunteered to be Valkyrie's queen in response to Tessa Thompson's comment about Valkyrie's sexuality in the fourth film. Deadline also notes that Lady Sif is expected to guest star in 2021's Loki series on Disney+, which is the first suggestion of the series being connected to Love and Thunder.
Thor: Love and Thunder has been described as an "Avengers 5"- level movie. Chris Pratt will return as Star-Lord with the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy expected to appear in small supporting roles, while Natalie Portman is coming back as Jane Foster, who will become the Mighty Thor. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson reprise their roles as Thor and Valkyrie from Avengers: Endgame, while Taika Waititi returns to direct after his success with Thor: Ragnarok. The movie has been delayed from February to May 2022, which I'm happy about, because now 2022 won't have four enormous Marvel movies in the span of 6 months.
I can't wait to see Love and Thunder, but I'm afraid it's becoming too big. Two Thors, Valkyrie, and Sif sounds great to me, but having the Guardians of the Galaxy in supporting rather than cameo roles may become overkill. I'm going to be disappointed if Loki returns as well, since the character has already died three times and had a proper final death scene in Avengers: Infinity War. The Loki series looks interesting, but it's coming several years too late for me, and I'm really tired of Loki switching allegiances and constantly dying. It's becoming more annoying than fun for me at this point, which is why I don't really want him back in Love and Thunder unless we're getting Lady Loki or Kid Loki.
Christian Bale playing Gorr is also uninteresting to me. I was hoping he would be a cooler villain, as Gorr is a fairly unknown character whose greatest strength seems to be his unique abilities. However, Thor: Ragnarok already gave Hela most of Gorr's powers, down to the Necrosword she wielded and her ability to conjure weapons out of thin air and turn dead Asgardian soldiers into a Berserker army. I loved Hela as a villain, but I was disappointed that she wasn't a true goddess of death. She just shot weapons out of her body and killed a ton of people while the coolest aspects of the character from the comics, like being the ruler of Hel, being able to kill people with a single touch, and using magic were left out of the movie entirely. I would have preferred to see Cate Blanchett return as Hela especially after she was killed off for no reason at the end of the film. Unless they tie Gorr's power set into Hela's abilities or give him new powers, I don't think he's going to be as good of an antagonist as she was.
What do you think about the new developments for Thor: Love and Thunder? Comment below!
Thor: Love and Thunder releases May 6th, 2022.