The Marvel Cinematic Universe has an interesting approach when it comes to adapting material from the beloved source material. Fans often have a hard time guessing which details, characters, or storylines, will make the jump without significant changes and which will be unrecognizable.
Thor: Ragnarok was almost certainly the most beloved of the three films starring The God of Thunder, so fans are obviously thrilled to see director Taika Waititi return to the franchise. The visionary filmmaker tends towards screwball comedy alongside his deeply emotional family tales, lending Thor a sense of humor he'd mostly lacked in the past. While most fans loved the new direction, others felt that the film might have pushed the jokes a bit too far.
The trailers, production stills, poster, and title of Thor: Love and Thunder all seem to suggest a similar tone to the previous film. The trailers are full of jokes, the soundtrack seems to be dominated by a classic rock track, and everything seems extremely colorful. The lone exception is the film's villain, who stands as a remarkable digression from every other element of the film thus far.
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The villain of Thor's fourth solo outing is Gorr the God-Butcher, a deranged serial murderer who seeks to commit genocide upon all the universe's deities. He looks a bit different from the source material, but his goal and execution seem to be quite familiar. The limited evidence of his work even mirrors actions he took in the comics. The strange aspect of this reveal is that Gorr's storyline in Marvel Comics does not gel with the tone presented by the Love and Thunder trailers.
The "God-Butcher" storyline of the Thor comics is contained within issues one through five of Thor: God of Thunder. Released in 2012 and written Jason Aaron, this brief run is one of the darkest moments of Thor's comic book history. It's a tale of vengeance and guilt. Thor remembers the horrific face of a deadly foe he faced centuries earlier when a mountain of deific corpses begin washing up on various shores.
Gorr's actions are appropriately treated as a genocide, and many of his victims are granted a great deal of empathy before their vicious destruction. Thor's fate isn't much prettier, leaving him old, bitter, and destroyed by his own unending quest for vengeance. Comparisons to Frank Miller's take on Batman wouldn't be far from accurate. With that in mind, it's worth wondering how the man who directed the funniest MCU movie and seems primed to top himself might handle the topic.
Marvel has deliberately misled fans with their trailers a few times now. Edited shots in the Infinity War trailer were among the first noticeable tricks. Much of the setup around Sam Raimi's recent Multiverse of Madness seemed to set up elements that were often quickly subverted. In a world where audiences and professionals will pick apart individual frames of every trailer and leaks regularly spoil entire franchises, lying to the audience is the best possible way to keep secrets. Frankly, Marvel should embrace the tactic more often. The MCU has to plaster every screen with their iconography, playing with their fans and seeing who is really paying attention would be a way to keep things fun. In the case of Gorr and Thor, this would be a particularly interesting rug-pull moment.
The MCU has a long habit of using comic book storylines as general set dressing while fundamentally changing every major aspect of the narrative. This is sometimes fun and keeps dedicated fans guessing, but it also occasionally feels like a bit of a cop-out when fans see the corporate reasons behind the change.
Disney has been accused of cutting out substantial chunks of Marvel's best material to keep a family-friendly atmosphere. Moon Knight received a fair amount of pushback for this reason. Some fans felt that the more violent action of the comics better fits the character and that the Disney+ series undercut the character with more family-friendly elements. With that in mind, it seems far more likely that Gorr's God-Butchery won't stack up to what appeared on the page than that the trailers are deliberately misleading fans.
There seems to be a lot going on in Love and Thunder. Between the Guardians of the Galaxy popping up, the dalliance with Zeus, Thor's return to heroism, and reconnecting with Jane Foster, it's hard to know where Gorr will fit in. If there's a filmmaker alive who can maintain his trademark tone while still maintaining a menace appearance for a deadly villain, it's Taika Waititi.
The best-case scenario could see Gorr faithfully realized as the shocking darkness hiding within the otherwise colorful universe. While some fans may feel Gorr is being censored, it'll be interesting to see how the iconic filmmaker threads this impossible needle. Thor: Love and Thunder might be one of the most ambitious projects in the MCU so far, and it's got the perfect filmmaker in the driver's seat.