Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Love and Thunder, believes Christian Bale has the potential to be the best Marvel villain ever. The filmmaker also mentioned Chris Hemsworth’s Thor’s mid-life crisis in a summer movie preview with the Associated Press. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, the lovable Asgardian finds himself without a purpose. Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher crosses his path while searching for new meaning with The Guardians of the Galaxy. The villain has yet to appear in any official materials. However, comic book readers are well aware of how dangerous the character can be. Waititi believes he can dethrone Thanos or Hela from the top of the Marvel villain rankings. That’s a tall order, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Bale. He’s a veteran of the superhero movie genre. But this time, he’s on the other side of the coin, playing the villain.
“It’s a great, really fun, weird little group of heroes, a new team for Thor with Korg, Valkyrie and The Mighty Thor,” Waititi explained. “And, in my humble opinion, we have probably the best villain that Marvel’s ever had in Christian Bale.”
“Thor is just trying to figure out his purpose, trying to figure out exactly who he is and why he’s a hero or whether he should be a hero,” Waititi explained. “I guess you could call it a midlife crisis.”
The director had joked in previous interviews, “I’ve done some crazy stuff in my life, just between [me and] you and the readers. I’ve lived a tenth of a lifetime. But it’s the most bizarre film I’ve ever made. It shouldn’t make sense if you wrote down all of the elements of this film “He went on to say, “It’s almost as if it shouldn’t have been made in the first place. If you walked into a room and said, “I want this, this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, What’s in it, and who’s in it? These are the people. What are your plans for the name? Thunder And Love You’d never work again, right? Maybe after this, I won’t.”
Thor decided to delegate Asgard-ruling duties to Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), who had taken over while he was in a deep depression following Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) snap, at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Thor’s decision to join the Guardians of the Galaxy in their adventure may not have resulted in any clarity regarding Thor’s post-Thanos plans. Thor is still hanging out with his fellow cosmic heroes, according to the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer, but an inciting incident forces him to return home and deal with it. He reunites with other Asgardian heroes, as well as Mighty Thor, at this point.
What’s intriguing is whether Thor has finally discovered his true purpose by the end of Thor: Love and Thunder. In Avengers: Endgame, his heartfelt conversation with Frigga (Rene Russo) inspired him to embrace his true self. But, based on Waititi’s comment, it doesn’t appear that the God of Thunder is aware of this — at least not when the movie begins. Hopefully, he realizes it by the end of the blockbuster. Giving one of the Avengers a midlife crisis is a novel concept for an MCU film, and it will be interesting to see how Waititi handles it in Thor: Love and Thunder.