In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos will finally make his mark on the MCU – after six years of appearing in brief cameos or post-credits scenes – as he brings together all six Infinity Stones to gain supreme power over the universe. The worry Marvel fans everywhere have, though, is, will the villain manage to measure up to all the hype?
From what we’ve heard so far, a lot of effort has been made to ensure that Thanos comes across as both the most intimidating antagonist the Avengers have ever faced, yet also perhaps the most empathetic, too, as he’ll be presented as a three-dimensional being who sees himself as the hero of the story.
Now, in an illuminating interview with The Telegraph India, the Russo brothers have revealed all about Thanos’ backstory and the motivations behind his quest to accessorize his Infinity Gauntlet.
“Thanos is this virtually indestructible character who’s stronger than the Hulk, and has invincible skin. He’s from a planet called Titan. Many years prior to the film his planet was experiencing a cataclysmic shift. They were running out of resources, and they were overpopulated.
Thanos made a recommendation that they exterminate half the population randomly in order to save the rest of the population. Of course, the Titans rejected his notion, branded him a mad man, exiled him, and the planet ended up dying. So he has taken it upon himself to go planet-by-planet throughout the universe and wipe out half of the population of each planet as a way to correct the planet and bring it back into balance.”
Burning with anger and shame about what happened to his home world, and knowing that he could have done something about it, Thanos makes it his goal to collect these legendary Infinity Stones and “rescue” the rest of the universe from itself, wiping out half the life on every planet he comes across.
“Once he hears about the stones, he realises that if he can get hold of all of the Infinity Stones he can control the entire universe. With the snap of his fingers he could correct the universe permanently by removing 50 per cent of life from it. So, these are incredible stakes for our characters. If the Avengers were built for anything, it’s for stopping Thanos from completing his goal.”
If you’re surprised the Russos were happy to spill the beans like this before the film releases, it’s worth considering that all this information might not actually be that important an element of the movie itself. The directors previously revealed, for instance, that they ultimately decided against depicting Thanos’ backstory. So, if his history is detailed, it could just come in the form of a few lines of dialogue.
We’ll get to see whether Thanos truly does live up to the long wait for his arrival when Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27th.
