Thanos’ Backstory Won’t Feature During Avengers: Infinity War, And Here’s Why

Josh Brolin’s Thanos, a character whose power and strength almost defies belief, has been described as many things by many people.

While some consider him to be death incarnate, there are those like Anthony Mackie who have deemed Thanos to be the “one true lead” of Avengers: Infinity War. And for good reason, given Marvel’s imminent blockbuster is said to be structured around his search for the Infinity Stones – six cosmic gems of untold power who grant their wielder the ability to control time and space with the snap of their fingers.

And though that may be true, Joe and Anthony Russo ultimately trimmed much of the Mad Titan’s backstory from Infinity War on the belief that it “wasn’t necessary” for the movie.

We were considering showing [Thanos’] backstory, but ultimately felt it wasn’t necessary for the movie.” [But it is] “still told from his [Thanos] point of view.

If nothing else, it seems those brief, Logan-esque flashbacks to Gamora’s childhood will only add weight to Thanos’ endgame, which involves collecting those aforementioned Stones in order to rebalance the universe.

That conquest will inevitably spill over into Avengers 4, even if the Russos’ 2019 sequel has since been billed as an entirely different movie to Infinity War. Nevertheless, Mackie firmly believes that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will be playing second fiddle to Thanos later this month.

The great thing is that tonally, how the movie’s working now everyone, it’s not like you see one person who is the lead of the movie. It’s truly and ensemble movie. I would say if anybody is the lead of the movie it’s Thanos. And it’s all of us working around, orbiting Thanos because he’s such a big bad guy. He’s the uber bad guy. He’s the worst bad guy of all bad guys of all time. So you can’t like put them in three scenes down, then a fight scene at the end. You really have to give them just due. So, our relationship and our scenes are more ensemble based. Everybody playing with a relationship with each other.

With a record-setting ensemble in tow and box office projections nearing $200 million, Avengers: Infinity War is expected to grace theaters on April 27th.