Christian Bale fans can rest easy. Marvel recently released an expanded trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder revealing the actor in his villainous role as Gorr the God Butcher, and he looks sufficiently terrifying. However, comic book fans aren’t quite as pleased.
Thor 4 director Taika Waititi seems to be taking a restrained approach to Gorr’s character design, ditching the face tentacles from the comics to showcase Bale’s actual, expressive face. Gorr’s iconic weapon, the All Black necrosword, is also inexplicably white. However, fans think they may have figured out the truth...
Thor 4 and Gorr’s necrosword
In the comics, All Black is a legendary weapon that’s more than just a sword. It’s actually the first-ever Symbiote (the alien race that includes Venom among its ranks). The All Black corrupts its owner. After latching onto Gorr in the comics, it gives him the superpowers, which he uses to murder as many gods as he can.
As its name suggests, the All Black is also... black. However, in the movie, it’s white — or is it? On Reddit, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been speculating about Gorr’s weapon, and one popular theory is that Marvel digitally changed the sword’s color specifically for the trailer.
This wouldn’t be the first time the studio used a trailer to obscure the truth. Various Avengers trailers digital removed key details (like the number of stones in Thanos’ gauntlet) and even inserted Hulk into the Battle of Wakanda. So it’s not out of the question that Marvel might change the color of a legendary sword. But why?
The answer could have everything to do with Venom.
Will Thor 4 put Venom in the MCU?
Venom made a brief appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credits and managed to leave behind a bit of Symbiote goop before getting zapped back to his own dimension. This seems to be Marvel’s way of leaving the door open for some other version of Venom to turn up in a future MCU story, but could it happen in Thor: Love and Thunder?
One leaked promotional image for the upcoming movie did seem to show Gorr unleashing some Venom-like tentacles on Thor and Jane Foster. But that’s the closest we’ve gotten to any sort of confirmation that Love and Thunder could feature a Symbiote plotline.
Then again, as some fans have pointed out, Gorr seems to be transforming into something more terrifying throughout Thor 4. Perhaps by the end of the movie, the MCU will have its own Venom, and it will be one played by the Dark Knight himself.
Thor: Love and Thunder premieres July 8, 2022.
