Venom: The Last Dance could retcon Thor: Love and Thunder

Venom: The Last Dance is going to introduce movie audiences to fan favorite Marvel villain Knull, the King in Black, this year. While being a recent addition to the Marvel Comics canon, Knull has become a beloved villain in the eyes of fans, but his presence in the latest Venom film may be tied with that of another Marvel villain, that being Gorr the God Butcher.

Gorr was the main villain in the divisive Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Thor: Love and Thunder back in 2022, and his origins were slightly changed from his comic counterpart, which involved Knull.

So, with Knull's live action debut soon, will his presence retcon Gorr's origin in the MCU? Or more specifically, will Knull's debut change the origin of the weapon Gorr wielded in Thor: Love and Thunder?

Gorr's Marvel Comics and MCU origins, explained

Gorr The God Butcher made his first full appearance in Jason Aaron's acclaimed run on Thor in Thor: God of Thunder No. 2 in January of 2013. When readers were first introduced to the character, his origins were shrouded in mystery, but his reputation was soon known to Thor and his allies when they first clashed during ancient Norse times.

Thor had never faced anyone like Gorr, who tore through his allies like they were nothing and even killed some gods during the fight, and he was soon captured and tortured by the powerful villain. After freeing himself and cutting off one of Gorr's arms, Thor and his remaining allies felt that the God Butcher wouldn't survive his wounds. Centuries later, Thor received reports that gods from a far galaxy have gone missing, and after an investigation he found those gods brutally killed, which led to a trail of dead gods that spanned the cosmos. Gorr was back, and more powerful than ever, and Thor set out to vanquish him before he could kill any more gods.

The rest of this first story deals with Thor teaming up with his past and future self to fight and defeat Gorr once and for all, as the villain planned to release a God bomb designed to kill all gods across space and time in one fell swoop.

In spite of his villainy, Gorr's origins are rooted in hardship and tragedy. He came from a unnamed desolate planet of religious fanatics, him being among them, and throughout his life he saw the deaths of his mother, wife, and finally his children. Through it all, Gorr was taught and told to believe in the gods they worshipped, and that they would make all their suffering worth it in the end. Gorr, his only surviving son, and a group of followers to the gods made their way across barren wastelands, but during the journey, Gorr's son died. Enough was enough, as Gorr found the gods, even if they existed, to be cruel and evil creatures. He wanted no part of believing in false saviors.

When his peers heard him, they deemed him a heretic and banished him from their group, leaving him alone to wander the wasteland that was his home planet. During his trek, Gorr stumbled upon two gods fighting (one garbed in black and the other in shining gold). The gold garbed god was severely hurt, and asked Gorr for aid, but the God Butcher was so angry that this god would ask for aid when him and his people prayed for aid everyday, and yet received none. In his rage, Gorr killed the gold garbed god, and the black garbed god's armor and sword left their fallen owner. And thus, from that day forward Gorr made a pledge to kill all gods throughout the universe - and with his newfound power, he could.

The MCU adaptation of Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder followed the comic origins quite closely, with a few minor differences and one major difference. Gorr killed a god his people did believe in, but his weapon came from different origins than the comic version. But before we discuss his weapon in the comics, let's talk about Knull's origin.

Knull's origin, explained

The Symbiote God. The King in Black. Knull! Knull was introduced and created during Donny Cates' seminal run on Venom in issue number 3 of that series. It was revealed during the first few issues that Knull was a being born millions of years before the creation of the Marvel Universe as most would know it today. During his slumber in the seemingly eternal blackness of his universe, the god like beings known as the Celestials came to his universe and began creating their own universe. Enraged by their presence and arrogance, Knull sought to kill them, but after a brief skirmish with them he lost. However, he survived.

In his defeat Knull would forge a weapon designed to kill the Celestials and any god-like being who would stand in his way: All-Black the Necro-Sword. This weapon was the first symbiote to exist, being the distant ancestor of Venom and his kind, and with this weapon, Knull beheaded one of the Celestials. Despite this, the Celestials successfully created their universe, but Knull began a plot that would span eons. He would create a race of beings similar to his weapon, and that race's sole purpose was to corrupt and inhabit the bodies of the mortals the Celestials created, thus ensuring that his version of the universe that existed before the Celestials would return to total blackness.

Eons later, Knull would find himself in a battle with golden garbed gods, in which he and one of the gods would fall to a desolate planet, severely wounding each other in the process. During the battle, a lonely mortal being would come upon the gods, and seemingly enraged, killed Knull's opponent, and weakened from the conflict, Knull couldn't stop this mortal from stealing his sword. If this sounds familiar, it should, for this mortal being was Gorr the God Butcher.

Gorr stole the weapon of Knull, and after the former was defeated by Thor, Knull would eventually retrieve his weapon. The creation of Knull was an interesting one, for while the black garbed god was created by Jason Aaron during his Thor run back in 2013, Donny Cates would add to that lore and give that god a name and origin with his Venom run in 2018. Technically, both Cates and Aaron created Knull, even though Aaron didn't him his own origin and name.

Knull would be the primary villain of the cates Venom run, and would be a universe-level threat to all the Marvel Universe in the massive crossover event King in Black. He would eventually be defeated by an empowered Venom during that crossover, but his legacy would live on. Fans have longed to see him make his live-action debut, and it's finally going to happen in the upcoming Venom: The Last Dance.

What could happen to Knull after Venom 3, and will it change Gorr's origins?

The track record with the main villains in the Venom film series is that they would be defeated and killed by the end of them, such as with Riot and Carnage. However, that might not be the case with Knull as a new rumor suggests that Knull could be a player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after his debut in Venom 3, more specifically involved in the next Tom Holland Spider-Man film. And with further rumors claiming that Tom Hardy's Venom could involved in the project too, it's too soon to rule out the possibility that Knull could be involved.

Yes, the Knull's involvement in Spider-Man 4 is nothing but a rumor, but those rumors have stated that the next Holland Spider-Man will be titled Spider-Man: King in Black. This is an obvious reference to Knull, which would make the next Spidey film a multiversal film, similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home.

While the fate of Tom Hardy's Venom is still unknown after his third outing, there could be a post credit scene where the Venom symbiote makes it's way to the MCU proper with or without Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock, but that remains to be seen. If it's destined to happen, Marvel and Sony will find a way to make it happen.

The question is: Would Knull's apparent arrival in the MCU change the already-established origins for Gorr the God Butcher to make them more comic-accurate? After all, fans weren't thrilled with the changes to those origins, in spite of a committed and compelling performance from Christian Bale.

When Gorr was introduced in the MCU, the Necro Sword was clearly not tied to Knull and it's symbiotic origins from the comics. However, that could change with the rumored coming of Knull in the MCU if Marvel wanted it to. And let's face it: Thor: Love and Thunder wasn't a very good MCU movie - let alone movie in general - with or without Gorr's presence, so Marvel Studios might want to try and erase (or at least change) Gorr's MCU origins to tie them in with Venom and Knull and their supposed involvement in future MCU projects (like the next Spider-Man film).

Only time will tell.