Thor: Love and Thunder casts Christian Bale as main villain

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

Christian Bale has been cast in Thor: Love and Thunder as the feature film's main villain. Reports began surfacing in January that Bale was in talks to join the cast, but now we have concrete news of his casting, plus a few extra details.

In a conversation with ET, co-star Tessa Thompson had this to say about Thor 4 and Bale's role: Christian Bale is going to play our villain, which is going to be fantastic," Thompson said. "I've read the script. I can't tell you much. Lots of exciting text messages exchanged between Natalie and I. We're going to have fun. Taika is writing [and] directing. Some familiar faces. Some new people coming into the mix."

Thompson is set to reprise her role as Valkyrie in Thor 4, and the actress says it's officially King Valkyrie now. "She's king," she affirmed. "If she can't find her queen, she'll just be king and queen at the same time." As for Bale's villain role, Thompson didn't have anything further to share just yet.

Of course, you can also expect to see Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder himself, as well as co-star Natalie Portman as Jane Foster (and later Mighty Thor). Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is returning to director's duties in Love and Thunder.

Announced at San Diego Comic Con 2019, Thor 4 is set for release November 5, 2021.

But what - there's more! Thor 4 is just one exciting Marvel Phase 4 release, alongside Black Widow, The Eternals, and Spider-Man 3.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.