THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Concept Art Reveals Very Early Design For Gorr The God Butcher

We've seen quite a few alternate takes on Thor: Love and Thunder villain Gorr the God Butcher at this stage, but this latest concept art features arguably the most comic-accurate design yet.

Shared to Instagram by John Staub, this is one of the artist's earliest designs for the character, which he came up with before Christian Bale was cast in the role.

"One of my first passes on Gorr the God Butcher before anyone was cast," he captioned his post. "There were a lot of questions on whether he would be fully cg or prosthetics, or a mix. so we did a lot of explorations on him. He was really fun to work on as he wasn’t your typical antagonist. He was a character dealing with great loss and betrayal. Thanks for looking!"

It's been reported that Gorr's appearance was altered because early make-up tests made Bale look a little too much like Harry Potter's Voldemort, and looking at this artwork, it was probably a valid concern! The Academy Award-winner did ultimately wind up looking sufficiently creepy as the God Butcher in the end - it's just a shame he didn't have enough screen-time to really flesh out the character.

Thor: Love and Thunder finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor.

Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Directed by Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit) and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, Thor: Love and Thunder  is now playing in theaters.