Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Hemsworth likes the film’s villain. A lot.

During an interview with IGN, the 38-year-old Marvel star gushed over Christian Bale’s performance as Gorr the God Butcher in the upcoming Thor sequel. So, what makes it so special?

“Everything you'd imagine [Christian Bale] would bring to it,” he said. “Nuance and complexity and truth, levity. He's one of my favorite actors working, and I was so excited he agreed to jump on board here. What's he's done is that he's definitely one of my favorite villains in the Marvel universe.”

Gorr the God Butcher is a relatively new addition to the comic books. In fact, he’s only been slaying gods since his first appearance in Thor: God of Thunder #1 in 2012.

Driven to madness by the death of his wife and children, Gorr seeks vengeance against the gods, deciding that gods who see suffering but refuse to help simply don’t deserve to live. And so begins his quest to murder every god in the known universe.

Not exactly a light-hearted kind of guy.

"He's hugely intimidating and destructive, but the right amount of heart and truth there and relatable pain that we can attune to or understand ourselves,” said Hemsworth. “So, it makes it all the more complex when you're trying to figure out what everyone's motivations are."

Of course, with Natalie Portman harnessing the power of lightning in the recent trailer, it’s unclear which god Gorr will be hunting down in Thor: Love and Thunder. Either way, it sounds as though Thor will be facing him head-on... and that sounds like quite a fight.

Here’s the Thor: Love and Thunder official synopsis:

The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods.

To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Thor: Love and Thunder will release on July 8.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi!

Obi-Wan could be back for Season 2… if there’s enough demand.

During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy revealed that the door has been left firmly open for a second season of the hit Star Wars spin-off show.

“Well, frankly, we did set out to do that as a limited series,” she said. “But I think if there’s huge engagement and people really want more Obi-Wan, we’ll certainly give that consideration because the fans, they speak to us. And if we feel like, ‘OK, there’s a real reason to do this; it’s answering the why then,’ then we’ll do it. But we’ll see.”

Additionally, series director Deborah Chow was reluctant to say whether Obi-Wan will be back.

“I think, you know, if it was to go forward, it would only be if there was a real reason for another one,” she said.

And you have to admit, the first season ends in just about the perfect spot.

After rescuing Princess Leia and returning her home, Obi-Wan heads back to the desert planet of Tatooine and continues his hermitting ways as he secretly watches over Luke Skywalker. It brings the show full circle, returning all the key players to exactly where they should be before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Any story coming after this would need a really good reason to exist.

However, stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are keen to suit up as Obi-Wan and Darth Vader once again.

“I really hope we do another,” said McGregor. “If I could do one of these every now and again — I'd just be happy about it.”

Of course, the return of an iconic Star Wars character in the show’s final moments raises some unanswered questions… and it could be a good jumping-off point to continue Obi-Wan’s story in a second season.

Whether or not Disney and Lucasfilm agree remains to be seen.

Obi-Wan Kenobi stars Ewan McGregor as the titular Jedi alongside Benny Safdie, Joel Edgerton, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Sung Kang, and Hayden Christensen.

Deborah Chow directed the series based on scripts by Joby Harold, Andrew Stanton, Hannah Friedman, Hossein Amini, and Stuart Beattie.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi!

Obi-Wan could be back for Season 2… if there’s enough demand.

During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy revealed that the door has been left firmly open for a second season of the hit Star Wars spin-off show.

“Well, frankly, we did set out to do that as a limited series,” she said. “But I think if there’s huge engagement and people really want more Obi-Wan, we’ll certainly give that consideration because the fans, they speak to us. And if we feel like, ‘OK, there’s a real reason to do this; it’s answering the why then,’ then we’ll do it. But we’ll see.”

Additionally, series director Deborah Chow was reluctant to say whether Obi-Wan will be back.

“I think, you know, if it was to go forward, it would only be if there was a real reason for another one,” she said.

And you have to admit, the first season ends in just about the perfect spot.

After rescuing Princess Leia and returning her home, Obi-Wan heads back to the desert planet of Tatooine and continues his hermitting ways as he secretly watches over Luke Skywalker. It brings the show full circle, returning all the key players to exactly where they should be before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Any story coming after this would need a really good reason to exist.

However, stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are keen to suit up as Obi-Wan and Darth Vader once again.

“I really hope we do another,” said McGregor. “If I could do one of these every now and again — I'd just be happy about it.”

Of course, the return of an iconic Star Wars character in the show’s final moments raises some unanswered questions… and it could be a good jumping-off point to continue Obi-Wan’s story in a second season.

Whether or not Disney and Lucasfilm agree remains to be seen.

Obi-Wan Kenobi stars Ewan McGregor as the titular Jedi alongside Benny Safdie, Joel Edgerton, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Sung Kang, and Hayden Christensen.

Deborah Chow directed the series based on scripts by Joby Harold, Andrew Stanton, Hannah Friedman, Hossein Amini, and Stuart Beattie.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features a new, multiverse-breaking villain… and it turns out that the film’s creators were inspired by the Portal video games.

During an interview with Indie Wire, co-director Kemp Powers revealed the inspiration behind the sequel’s new villain, The Spot.

“This guy has so much unrealized potential,” he explained. “If you ever played the game Portal, you know you could do some s**t with these superpowers.”

It’s certainly no insult to suggest that The Spot is one of Spider-Man’s more obscure villains.

His first appearance was in Spectacular Spider-Man #98 in 1985, and saw Dr. Jonathan Ohnn take up the villainous mantle after a portal experiment he was working on goes awry. Leaving the villain with the ability to manifest portals over his body, he began using his powers to defeat Spider-Man…

Now, it looks as though he’ll take on Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse sequel.

“Keep in mind, Miles, right out of the gate, saved the whole multiverse in the first film,” said Powers. “Now he’s having to step back and manage life and family, and realize he was never the ‘friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,’ he was ‘the save the multiverse Spider-Man.’ The journeys of Miles and The Spot complement each other.”

The Spot will be voiced by Jason Schwartzman and uses the portals that appear on his body as weapons, letting him sling his opponent’s blows back at them, and using their own strengths against them. Quite how Schwartzman will embody the scientist-turned-villain remains to be seen.

But according to Powers, the way they draw The Spot is even cooler. “We thought it would be really cool if the portals felt like living ink that had spilled or splattered on the comic artist’s drawing,” explained Powers. “His very simple power provided endless exciting challenges and permutations for our team.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sees Shameik Moore voice Miles Morales, alongside Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, and Issa Rae.

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin L. Thompson directed the film based on a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse features a new, multiverse-breaking villain… and it turns out that the film’s creators were inspired by the Portal video games.

During an interview with Indie Wire, co-director Kemp Powers revealed the inspiration behind the sequel’s new villain, The Spot.

“This guy has so much unrealized potential,” he explained. “If you ever played the game Portal, you know you could do some s**t with these superpowers.”

It’s certainly no insult to suggest that The Spot is one of Spider-Man’s more obscure villains.

His first appearance was in Spectacular Spider-Man #98 in 1985, and saw Dr. Jonathan Ohnn take up the villainous mantle after a portal experiment he was working on goes awry. Leaving the villain with the ability to manifest portals over his body, he began using his powers to defeat Spider-Man…

Now, it looks as though he’ll take on Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse sequel.

“Keep in mind, Miles, right out of the gate, saved the whole multiverse in the first film,” said Powers. “Now he’s having to step back and manage life and family, and realize he was never the ‘friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,’ he was ‘the save the multiverse Spider-Man.’ The journeys of Miles and The Spot complement each other.”

The Spot will be voiced by Jason Schwartzman and uses the portals that appear on his body as weapons, letting him sling his opponent’s blows back at them, and using their own strengths against them. Quite how Schwartzman will embody the scientist-turned-villain remains to be seen.

But according to Powers, the way they draw The Spot is even cooler. “We thought it would be really cool if the portals felt like living ink that had spilled or splattered on the comic artist’s drawing,” explained Powers. “His very simple power provided endless exciting challenges and permutations for our team.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sees Shameik Moore voice Miles Morales, alongside Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, and Issa Rae.

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin L. Thompson directed the film based on a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Hemsworth wants to be in Deadpool 3… and it’s all about upsetting Hugh Jackman.

During an interview with Ali Plumb on BBC Radio 1, the 38-year-old Marvel actor admitted that he would quite like to be the longest-serving comic book actor… but that accolade currently rests with Hugh Jackman.

“I wasn’t gonna,” he said when asked about playing Thor for another six years. “But now you’ve put that in front of me, you make a good point. It’s only six years. I’ve come this far… to turn back now would just be a waste.”

However, there’s one thing that could scupper Hemsworth…

If Jackman returns for a cameo in Deadpool 3, that would extend the Wolverine star’s run, making Hemsworth’s task even harder. And that’s when he suggested that he could cameo there instead.

“I might make some calls to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he quipped. “Might put myself in Deadpool instead. That would be the offering I think, you know… see if that passes. Yeah.”

Honestly? I could actually see that.

After all, the lighter, zanier tone of Thor: Ragnarok left the Norse superhero with much more of a sense of humor than in previous Thor movies… and I can’t help thinking he would be fascinated by Deadpool’s irreverent humor.

But could it actually happen? Deadpool has already made a surprise cameo alongside Korg – the well-mannered Kronan warrior who befriended Thor during the events of Thor: Ragnarok. But while the team-up saw the odd pair promoting Ryan Reynolds’ other movie, Free Guy, it’s unclear whether or not this will make it into the MCU proper.

Meanwhile, Thor will be busy tackling Gorr the God Butcher in the upcoming sequel.

Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, and Russel Crowe.

Taika Waititi directed the film based on a script he co-wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Hemsworth wants to be in Deadpool 3… and it’s all about upsetting Hugh Jackman.

During an interview with Ali Plumb on BBC Radio 1, the 38-year-old Marvel actor admitted that he would quite like to be the longest-serving comic book actor… but that accolade currently rests with Hugh Jackman.

“I wasn’t gonna,” he said when asked about playing Thor for another six years. “But now you’ve put that in front of me, you make a good point. It’s only six years. I’ve come this far… to turn back now would just be a waste.”

However, there’s one thing that could scupper Hemsworth…

If Jackman returns for a cameo in Deadpool 3, that would extend the Wolverine star’s run, making Hemsworth’s task even harder. And that’s when he suggested that he could cameo there instead.

“I might make some calls to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he quipped. “Might put myself in Deadpool instead. That would be the offering I think, you know… see if that passes. Yeah.”

Honestly? I could actually see that.

After all, the lighter, zanier tone of Thor: Ragnarok left the Norse superhero with much more of a sense of humor than in previous Thor movies… and I can’t help thinking he would be fascinated by Deadpool’s irreverent humor.

But could it actually happen? Deadpool has already made a surprise cameo alongside Korg – the well-mannered Kronan warrior who befriended Thor during the events of Thor: Ragnarok. But while the team-up saw the odd pair promoting Ryan Reynolds’ other movie, Free Guy, it’s unclear whether or not this will make it into the MCU proper.

Meanwhile, Thor will be busy tackling Gorr the God Butcher in the upcoming sequel.

Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, and Russel Crowe.

Taika Waititi directed the film based on a script he co-wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

After a series of community protests about the bot-ridden state of Team Fortress 2, Valve has released a new update for the game that has some tentatively hopeful change is coming, even if the patch itself is not a magical fix-all solution.

The update, which was pushed yesterday, includes a number of bugs and exploit fixes, most of which actually have nothing to do with botting. For instance, there's a fix to issues with animations on enemies that only appear during Halloween events and a fix for a years-old bug that occasionally showed placeholder names for players on kill cams and stat screens.

Many of these issues have been around for years and were mostly annoying, but not game-breaking. So their fixes, while welcome, are not exactly profound bot-fighting changes.

But there are a few changes in the update that has the Team Fortress 2 community cautiously optimistic. The biggest change is to the vote system: previously, Team Fortress 2 only allowed one vote to kick a player take place at a time, which made removing multiple bots from matches tedious and time-consuming, especially as they were quickly replaced with more. The new update allows both teams to have a vote running simultaneously, as well as a global vote to kick a player on top of that.

Valve has also removed the ability to change names during a matchmaking game, a feature that bots were exploiting by changing their names to be identical to those of players in the match, often causing inadvertent kicks of real players instead of the bots.

Though small fixes, the Team Fortress 2 community is responding well to the fixes, many of which are to bugs that have persisted for years. But it's not enough to permanently solve the botting problem. While one Reddit thread points out that player counts have dropped significantly post-update and the bot problem seems to have temporarily vanished, other commenters point out that this is something that happens every update due to initial bot incompatibility with new updates - they always return a few days later, as past updates attempting to curb the problem have demonstrated.

What's encouraging the Team Fortress 2 community this time around is that for the first time ever, Valve has actually said something publicly indicating it's aware of and working on the issue.

Over the last several months, the Team Fortress 2 community has been protesting the state of the game due to a years-long, overwhelming botting issue that has overrun public casual servers with spam messages, flawless snipers, and more recently, bots that can crash entire games.

Last month, the official Team Fortress 2 Twitter account acknowledged the botting problem in response to the protest, saying it was "working to improve things."

Aside from that tweet, it's unclear what, if any, future updates might be in the cards to continue to crack down on Team Fortress 2's bots. While the community is happy with the recent update and largely seems to recognize that larger updates take time, there's also a sense that this is yet another band-aid being applied to a problem much larger than Valve is willing to grapple with long-term. Given Valve's historically tight-lipped nature about its priorities, it seems likely that the only way to find out what the future of Team Fortress 2 will be is to wait and see.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

After a series of community protests about the bot-ridden state of Team Fortress 2, Valve has released a new update for the game that has some tentatively hopeful change is coming, even if the patch itself is not a magical fix-all solution.

The update, which was pushed yesterday, includes a number of bugs and exploit fixes, most of which actually have nothing to do with botting. For instance, there's a fix to issues with animations on enemies that only appear during Halloween events and a fix for a years-old bug that occasionally showed placeholder names for players on kill cams and stat screens.

Many of these issues have been around for years and were mostly annoying, but not game-breaking. So their fixes, while welcome, are not exactly profound bot-fighting changes.

But there are a few changes in the update that has the Team Fortress 2 community cautiously optimistic. The biggest change is to the vote system: previously, Team Fortress 2 only allowed one vote to kick a player take place at a time, which made removing multiple bots from matches tedious and time-consuming, especially as they were quickly replaced with more. The new update allows both teams to have a vote running simultaneously, as well as a global vote to kick a player on top of that.

Valve has also removed the ability to change names during a matchmaking game, a feature that bots were exploiting by changing their names to be identical to those of players in the match, often causing inadvertent kicks of real players instead of the bots.

Though small fixes, the Team Fortress 2 community is responding well to the fixes, many of which are to bugs that have persisted for years. But it's not enough to permanently solve the botting problem. While one Reddit thread points out that player counts have dropped significantly post-update and the bot problem seems to have temporarily vanished, other commenters point out that this is something that happens every update due to initial bot incompatibility with new updates - they always return a few days later, as past updates attempting to curb the problem have demonstrated.

What's encouraging the Team Fortress 2 community this time around is that for the first time ever, Valve has actually said something publicly indicating it's aware of and working on the issue.

Over the last several months, the Team Fortress 2 community has been protesting the state of the game due to a years-long, overwhelming botting issue that has overrun public casual servers with spam messages, flawless snipers, and more recently, bots that can crash entire games.

Last month, the official Team Fortress 2 Twitter account acknowledged the botting problem in response to the protest, saying it was "working to improve things."

Aside from that tweet, it's unclear what, if any, future updates might be in the cards to continue to crack down on Team Fortress 2's bots. While the community is happy with the recent update and largely seems to recognize that larger updates take time, there's also a sense that this is yet another band-aid being applied to a problem much larger than Valve is willing to grapple with long-term. Given Valve's historically tight-lipped nature about its priorities, it seems likely that the only way to find out what the future of Team Fortress 2 will be is to wait and see.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Thor: Love and Thunder star Chris Hemsworth won’t play the God of Thunder forever… and he’s already worked out when he’ll quit.

During an interview with Total Film, the 38-year-old Marvel actor explained what goes through his mind every time he’s approached for another Thor film.

“It always comes down to: ‘Is this script different to the last one?’” he explained. “‘Are we repeating something?’ And when it becomes too familiar, I think that's when I'd have to say, ‘Yeah, no, this doesn't’... I think I've... I'd like to exit before people tell me to exit.”

It’s certainly a noble idea and one that Marvel fans will appreciate.

Thankfully, it looks as though that hasn’t come up just yet, but with each new film, Hemsworth admits that he looks at the script and decides if it’s worth doing.

“Each time, if the opportunity comes up and presents itself, I'm just open to whatever creative exploration can happen, thanks to different writers and directors and so on,” he said. “But I love playing the character, I really do.”

Who will replace Hemsworth when he eventually hangs up his cape and hammer?

Well, with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) harnessing the power of lightning in the recent trailer, I can’t help thinking she might be a perfect stand-in when the time comes. However, while Jane Foster does become the new Thor at one point in the comic books, we have no idea how closely Marvel will follow that particular storyline.

Here’s the Thor: Love and Thunder official synopsis:

“The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods.”

“To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.”

An epic Thor sequel for Hemsworth to bow out on? Perhaps. But let’s hope there’s some life left in the old god yet.

Thor: Love and Thunder stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, and Russel Crowe. Taika Waititi directed the film based on a script he co-wrote with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.