What I Heard This Week: Christian Bale’s Potential Role in ‘THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER’

Every now and then I come across some information the veracity of which can be confirmed by a second source. What happens FAR more often is that I come across some information that while believable and from trustworthy sources, cannot be confirmed by other sources for various reasons. Typically, when the second scenario occurs, I move on and forget about the information unless, in rare instances, it turns out to be proven true somewhere down the road.

With two different Disney Plus series under production at the same time, and films at various states of pre-production, rumors are running rampant and while it’s a ton of fun to sort through them all, not all of them make a ton of sense; however, I recently came across one that, while unverified, makes a lot of sense. It’s important to understand that, because I can’t verify this with a second source, I myself am treating it as a rumor which means, for the time being, I don’t believe it myself. It’s also important to understand that the information provided would be spoilery if did turn out to be true. So please read at your own risk and please make an effort to represent what you’ve read here as nothing more than a rumor. This isn’t a “hot scoop”, at least not yet. For now, they it is nothing more than a compelling rumor that should generate plenty of great discussion among the MCU fan community. With that having been said, read ahead if you chose…

In no way, shape or form should any of this be shared nor construed as confirmation of anything.

Things I heard this week: Christian Bale’s potential role in Thor: Love and Thunder is a mo-cap role.

I spoke to an agent yesterday and while he could not give any info on what the role was, he said, “I’ve just heard that Christian is doing it.”

Obviously that left me unsatisfied, so I kept digging around. The next part of the story is easily the best part, but CANNOT be confirmed as of this afternoon.

I went to another trusted source…very trusted…like the guy who told me that Widow and Iron Man would die in Avengers: Endgame and that Sam would get the shield. I asked him if he could look into it. He did. Here’s the rundown,

Source: “I’m hearing it’s for a mo-cap role but still looking into it.”

In my mind, this doesn’t rule our Dario Agger, but it doesn’t make him the best choice either. Happily, 3 minutes later…

Source: “Who’s Dario?”

Me: “Dario Agger. Is that who he is? Did someone tell you that?”

Source: “Yeah, but they also mentioned Beta Ray Bill.”

End of chat until I hear back.

So what did I take away from this (I almost said, what should YOU take away from it, but that seemed heavy handed):

This conversation between me and “source” is reminiscent of a lot of conversations we’ve had in the past. The reality is that even in Los Angeles, nobody other than Bale, his agent, some people at his agency and the people at Disney are 100% sure who he is playing. The mo-cap part is interesting because he could be Agger and still obviously have to mo-cap the Minotaur. Beta Ray Bill is obviously the greatest Cosmic character ever and there is nothing anyone can say to change that, but, is Bale really up for this or did my source’s source get the echo chamber effect, ie did someone read it online and mention it to him and now he thinks that’s who it is? I have no idea.

What I would feel comfortable saying is that Agger and BRB are legit options where some others aren’t. If it’s mo-cap, well that’s a very helpful clue to help solve the problem. It means a character like Gorr, while he would seem unlikely given how Waititi co-opted him for Hela, is certainly in the mix.

Of course Bale has stated in the past he wants nothing to do with more comic book movies and is notoriously difficult to work with on set, so a mo-cap role where his exposure to other human beings is limited makes THE MOST sense. I’m continuing to try to dig into this, but I have no false hopes of being the guy who breaks it. I am, however, happy to share the breadcrumbs and tidbits I turn up along the way.