Thor: Love & Thunder's Villain Is Retconning Ragnarok's Hela
New art for Thor: Love and Thunder's Gorr the God Butcher has surfaced, and one aspect of it suggests a possible retcon of Ragnarok's Hela.
Thor: Love and Thunder might be using its villain to retcon Hela from Thor: Ragnarok. With Love and Thunder not set to release until July, there’s still not a lot known about the film, including how the main antagonist, Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher, will be adapted from the comics. However, new material does suggest that he’ll be adapted in a way that conflicts with previously established elements of the MCU.
Leaked promotional art for the MCU’s version of Gorr has not only provided a full look at his redesigned look for the MCU, but also the appearance of his signature weapon, All-Black the Necrosword. While the All-Black usually had a slightly jagged appearance in the comics when used by Gorr the God Butcher, it appears that the MCU version will look more like a traditional straight sword. The new appearance matches how the All-Black looked in later appearances, most notably when used by its creator, Knull, so the change could possibly be done to keep things in line with that.
One other thing the change to the All-Black does is suggest that Hela will be subjected to a retcon. In addition to looking different from how it did in the comics, Gorr’s Necrosword also looks distinctly different from the original Necroswords used by Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. All Necroswords are supposed to be similar in appearance to one another because of their shared origin, so Gorr’s Necrosword looking so different from Hela’s suggests that they don’t come from the same source and that one might not be a true Necrosword. Between Thor villains Gorr and Hela, Gorr is the character traditionally connected to the true nature and history of the Necroswords, so if anyone is meant to be using a real one, it’s bound to be him.
A possible retcon is also suggested by how Gorr doesn’t have a helmet like Hela’s. In What If…? episode 2, it was implied that the Necroswords were produced from Hela’s helmet when the Collector wore it against T’Challa, so if Gorr isn’t wearing a helmet, then that would mean that he draws his power from the sword itself and not a helmet. That would put Gorr’s version of the Necrosword closer to its depiction in the comics both before and after the reveal of its connection to the dark god Knull, and in doing so, it works to create less consistency with Hela’s version, thus further suggesting a retcon to her character.
A retcon would also be possible if this is meant to set up an eventual appearance by Knull. As previously stated, All-Black the Necrosword was created by Knull in the comics, but that wasn’t revealed until the beginning of Donny Cates’ Venom run, which happened years after Gorr made his debut. The existence of Gorr and the All-Black by themselves can already suggest the possibility of Knull appearing in the MCU, but Gorr’s version of the All-Black resembling how it looked when wielded by Knull could mean that Love and Thunder is setting up a King in Black storyline by establishing an even clearer connection between Gorr and Knull. Hela isn’t wholly necessary for that, especially since she wasn’t involved with it in the comics, so it would make sense for her to end up lost in the shuffle.
The All-Black is meant to have shapeshifting abilities, so Gorr’s could take on an appearance closer to Hela’s, but the leaked picture is likely meant to be its default appearance in the film. If that’s the case, then that would mean that Thor: Love and Thunder is making Gorr’s Necrosword distinctly different from Hela’s to the point of possibly retconning the MCU's Thor: Ragnarok history. With only a single picture to go on, there still isn’t a lot of information on how everything will play out, but what has been given doesn’t suggest much in Hela’s favor, either way.