‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ is peppered with pop-cultural references, as is expected in Marvel movies, but one scene tips the hat to the ‘Harry Potter‘ franchise. The wizarding world created by JK Rowling has remained immensely popular, forcing Taika Waititi to make a variation in his adaptation, to avoid confusion with the iconic Harry Potter villain – Voldemort. 

In the comics, Gorr the God Butcher looks like Ralph Fiennes’ on-screen Voldemort, which forced the director to deviate from the source material, as Waititi told IGN. “His face in the comics, unfortunately, does kind of resemble Voldemort”, the filmmaker said, adding, “People are just gonna automatically make that connection”. 

While Christian Bale’s character might not resemble the dark wizard, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor emulates a wizard riding a broomstick, when he straddles Stormbreaker and flies off. 

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Thor is, at that time, with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but tries meditating, unless someone asks him for his help in an unwinnable fight. Peter Quill or Starlord seeks his help, and Thor proceeds to root out Stormbreaker from the ground and fly off on it.  

In the Harry Potter movies, the brooms are used as a means of transport, and also feature heavily in Quidditch matches. 

Waititi might have left in the deliberate nod to the Potterverse but was careful to alter Bale’s on-screen appearance. His nose is different, and Gorr trades his black cape for a pristine cloth.

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“So we decided to depart from that design a bit more and like, sorta keep elements of the tone and the fact that he had the sword”, Waititi continued, adding, “But really it was about his story that was the most important thing for us.” 

In ‘Love and Thunder’ Thor faces off against Gorr who plans to kill all gods, but the God of Thunder shows the butcher that love is a stronger motivator than revenge, helping him reunite with his deceased child and saving the kidnapped Asgardian children in the process.