Thor: Love & Thunder’s Villain Twists Explained

Thor: Love and Thunder made it clear that Gorr the God Butcher was a major villain in the marketing, but there are more villains and twists as well.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.

The MCU might be more famous for its heroes than its villains, but Thor: Love and Thunder introduces three new villains with some twists along the way. Much of the marketing for Thor: Love and Thunder focused on Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) and the return of Jane Foster as Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman). However, another story thread promises to have a longer impact on the MCU as a whole.

In Thor: Love and Thunder, Gorr comes from a desert planet with no resources and witnesses the death of his daughter from lack of food and water. When he then comes across a grove that holds his god, the Light Bringer, and is dismissed by the god, Gorr takes up the Necrosword and kills the god. Disillusioned with the concept of gods, Gorr sets out on a quest to kill all gods which sets him on a collision course with Thor (Chris Hemsworth)

While Gorr’s plan to kill the gods of the MCU with the Necrosword might seem simple, he has a deeper secret plan and some twists appeared along the way. As Thor, Jane, and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) seek to stop Gorr, they come across other figures who become villains for the God of Thunder in the future of the MCU. Here is every Thor: Love and Thunder villain, their plans, and their twists.

Zeus (Russell Crowe)

When Thor, Mighty Thor, Valkyrie, and Korg realize that Gorr is not only a threat to them, but to all gods, they seek help in Omnipotence City. The city of the gods is ruled over by the showboating Greek God of Lightning, Zeus. Sneaking into the city, the heroes hope to be able to use Zeus’ weapon Thunderbolt, if not have more direct support from the gods in Thor: Love and Thunder as they seek to defeat Gorr and the threat to all of them.

While Zeus is not a major antagonist in Thor: Love and Thunder, he still serves as a villain. Neglecting any that have faith in the gods, Zeus has led the inhabitants of Omnipotence City towards a hedonistic lifestyle, focused on orgies and generally having a good time. Zeus declines to support Thor and his team as it threatens to disrupt their laidback lifestyle and they believe that all the important gods will be safe inside Omnipotence and Gorr’s Eternity plan is doomed to failure.

While Zeus refusing to help the heroes of Thor: Love and Thunder is enough to land Zeus minor villain status, he sends guards after them for disrespecting him. Zeus eventually steps in himself and breaks Korg apart with Thunderbolt. In an act of vengeance, Thor throws Thunderbolt through Zeus’ chest and appears to kill the god.

Gorr’s Stormbreaker Plan

While Gorr’s plan is originally suggested to be simply killing the gods with the Necrosword, it is soon revealed that his plan is much darker. In Thor: Love and Thunder, Gorr kills gods to help get Thor’s attention, and when cannot easily defeat the Asgardians, he captures their children to lure Thor to the Shadow Realm where Gorr and the Necrosword are most powerful. All of this is not so that he can kill Thor, but simply so that he can claim Stormbreaker for himself.

Gorr’s true plan is not to simply kill all of the gods one, but rather to access the cosmic being Eternity, a personification of the universe, and use the wish that it will grant the first person to reach it to wish all gods out of existence. With Heimdall’s death in Avengers: Infinity War, Gorr instead needs to get Stormbreaker to be able to use the Bifrost. Once he is able to get Stormbreaker and reach the gateway to Eternity, he uses the axe to blast open the door while Thor attempts to stop him.

Gorr’s Thor: Love and Thunder redemption

While the major villain of Thor: Love and Thunder, he is not directly defeated by the Thors, but is persuaded to change his course and is redeemed in doing so. Gorr truly loved his daughter and her death broke his heart, but he kept his faith in his god. When he found that his god didn’t care about him and was happy for them all to die, Gorr understandably responded with anger. It was anger and a quest for vengeance that drove most of his actions in Thor: Love and Thunder.

This state of mind is exacerbated by the Necrosword, which acts as a curse upon him. While the Necrosword makes Gorr more powerful, it parallels Jane’s use of Mjolnir in that it will eventually kill him. Once the Necrosword is destroyed, Gorr begins to die as well, but still aims to use his wish before he passes at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder.

However, Thor and Jane are at Eternity with him and rather than trying to use force to stop him from making his wish, the pair appeal to his emotions. Declining to fight, Thor spends what little time he might have before Gorr wishes gods out of existence with Jane as she dies from her cancer. Gorr, seeing the parallel to his own daughter’s death is reminded of the love that he felt. Ultimately, Gorr puts his anger and destruction aside in favor of bringing his daughter back and following a path of love instead and is redeemed in doing so.

Hercules (Brett Goldstein)

In the first Thor: Love and Thunder post-credits scene, two major villain twists are revealed, including the introduction of a new villain. Zeus is revealed to be badly wounded but still alive. As his wounds are tended to, he speaks about his frustrations around the way that superheroes are now lauded in the way that gods once were. Creating a plan to fix this problem, Zeus sends Hercules to kill Thor, suggesting that when Thor falls from the sky the mortals will once again have faith in the gods.

Hercules, Zeus’ son, is played by Brett Goldstein, famous for his role as Roy Kent in Ted Lasso. In the Marvel comics, Hercules is tricked into attacking the Avengers by the Asgardian Enchantress. When he is freed of her trickery he is outlawed by Zeus for leaving Olympus without permission and ultimately joins the Avengers. While it is too early to say exactly how Hercules’ future in the MCU will play out, Thor: Love and Thunder sees him set up as a villain being sent on an errand, and when he realizes the self-serving nature of his mission might turn against his father as he does in the comics. Not only is Brett Goldstein’s appearance as a villainous Hercules a twist in Thor: Love and Thunder, it sets up another twist and redemption within the future of the MCU.