Christian Bale's role in the upcoming sequel Thor: Love and Thunder has been revealed. Previously, it was reported that Bale had joined the cast of the Marvel movie, marking the acclaimed actor's debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It wasn't clear exactly who he'd be playing in the sequel, but Disney has just officially revealed that Bale will be playing the antagonist Gorr the God Butcher, a powerful supervillain who fights with Thor in the original Marvel comic books.

In the comics, Gorr takes a vow to kill all gods after none had helped his family and others who were dying and in need of assistance on his home planet. He uses All-Black the Necrosword to help him with his quest, at one point managing to severely harm and nearly kill Thor. Utilizing his superhuman abilities and creating his own army of shadow berserkers, Gorr takes out several other gods before he is finally bested by Thor in an ultimate showdown. Needless to say, a live-action Gorr might be the most fearsome villain we've seen in the MCU yet.

Christian Bale may be stepping into a Marvel movie for the first time, but he's definitely no stranger to superhero movies. He famously played Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman movie trilogy: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. DC would later replace Bale with Ben Affleck with the DCEU introducing a new version of Batman, and fans of Bale have been eagerly awaiting his inevitable MCU debut ever since. While he's experienced playing the hero and did a fantastic job as Batman, the versatile actor that Bale is should also be able to shine brightly as a much more sinister character.

In the years since playing Batman, Bale has kept himself busy with his various highly-diverse roles. He played a con artist in the David O. Russell drama American Hustle, former vice president Dick Cheney in 2018's Vice, and did voice work for the Netflix movie Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. He also played race car driver Ken Miles in last year's Ford v Ferrari, starring opposite Matt Damon as automobile designer Carroll Shelby.

Thor: Love and Thunder will obviously also be bringing back Chris Hemsworth as Thor. The sequel will also bring back Natalie Portman as Jane Foster who will take on the mantle of Mighty Thor, a female incarnation of Thor. Other cast members confirmed for the sequel include Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Taika Waititi as Korg, and Chris Pratt as Star-Lord with other characters from Guardians of the Galaxy rumored to appear. Waititi will also direct the movie using a screenplay co-written with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on Feb. 11, 2022. This will follow the releases of other Phase Four movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man 3, Eternals, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This news comes to us from Disney on Twitter.