Ever since Christian Bale was revealed to be in talks to join Thor: Love and Thunder, fans on the internet have been speculating about who he might be playing. From Beta Ray Bill, Dario Agger, to Gorr the God Butcher; if you name a character connected to Thor there’s been speculation that Bale could be playing it.

But this week a twist came to all of the fan speculation when The Illuminerdi reported that Bale’s character would be a villain and an alien. That kind of rules out the Beta Ray Bill speculation, as he was never truly a villain, but it opens the doors to some possibilities many haven’t considered yet.

Firstly, while many are still thinking he could be Gorr the God Butcher, Taika kind of already pulled from that story with Thor Ragnarok where they gave Gorr’s powers to Hela. He told Collider that was one of the stories they pulled from:

“It was really Planet Hulk and we pulled a little bit from God of Thunder and the Gorr runs. I looked at all the stuff that I personally feel are the coolest in the comics. We should have that and we should have that and we should have that… But I think you can ruin things by staying too true [to comics]. With every comic run, there’s always a retelling. There are rebirths. There are alternate universes. This film is so crazy, so eclectic, and there are so many amazing characters – Hulk, Thor, Hela. Loki, Grand Master… It really is, to my mind, the craziest of the Marvel films – in a good way.” Taika Waititi to Collider September 11, 2017

Dario Agger is still a possibility, with some people suggesting he could turn into Mangog instead of the minotaur, but there are still other options.

For a while Marvel has had plans to introduce two different cosmic villains to the MCU, and with the news of Bale playing an intergalactic villain in Thor: Love and Thunder; it’s possible that he may be one of them.

The first is Tryco Slatterus; otherwise known as the Champion of the Universe and someone who is very connected to Grandmaster, who as you know was in Thor Ragnarok. I personally don’t feel like this one is likely due to the other option on the table.

Gladiator is a huge fan favorite character that Marvel has plans for in the MCU, and would really be a great fit for Bale. Long held by Fox, due to him being a Shi’ar, Kallark would be a big hit with fans and would mean that Bale’s character wouldn’t be a “one and done” villain as he actually doesn’t always remain a villain in the comics. He has allied with both the X-Men and the Avengers when faced with epic universal threats.

Introducing a Shi’ar in a movie like Thor: Love and Thunder would also be another step towards whatever plans Marvel Studios has for the Mutants and would also fit in well with the forthcoming introduction of S.W.O.R.D. in WandaVision. It’s almost like it’s all connected.

This is all just speculation and trying to see a connection between Bale and characters Marvel plans to use in the future, but as with all MCU casting and fan speculation; it’s possible that he’ll end up playing a character people never expected.

About Author Jeremy Conrad https://mcucosmic.com/ Jeremy has been active on the web since the 90s. He once ran IGN DVD as well as other sites, and worked in the video game industry on Star Wars Galaxies. When he’s not pursing the future of Marvel movies, he’s really into tech. See author's posts