After topping charts thanks to an emotional Stranger Things 4 scene, the Kate Bush resurgence almost showed up in another highly anticipated piece of pop culture: Thor: Love and Thunder. While promoting his villainous role as Gorr the God Butcher, Christian Bale opened up about making his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which he didn’t even know was a thing. (‘The MCU?’ I had to ask what that was.”)
According to Bale, he did his research into Gorr, including reading the Jason Aaron comics that introduced the god-butchering character. However, he also turned to music videos to get a feel for where he and director Taika Waititi wanted to go with the live-action portrayal. That musical research almost resulted in a dance scene set to Kate Bush, who again, is all the rage right now. Via Total Film:
“There’s obviously sort of a Nosferatu slight attitude. Taika and I wanted to do a whole dance, which we didn’t get to do, but we had all this sort of Kate Bush stuff that we worked at. But I think he just realised he was never going to be allowed to put that in the final film. I would say that the most common thing I was staring at was the Aphex Twin video of ‘Come To Daddy’. But I don’t even know if that will be in the final film.”
Just to head off any accusations of Love and Thunder glomming onto the recent Kate Bush hype train, “Running Up That Hill” only started blowing up at the end of May when Stranger Things 4 premiered. Bale and Waititi would’ve been brainstorming Gorr scenes at least a year earlier, if not two when you factor in the pandemic. The simple explanation is Kate Rush is awesome, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when she pops up as an inspiration.
Thor: Love and Thunder rocks into theaters on July 8.
(Via Total Film)