Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame will forever go down in cinema history. But every now and then, a deleted scene makes its way online, leaving die hard fans wondering why it never made it to the big screen.
Naturally, Marvel had a huge task on their plate weaving together a decade of superhero storytelling, Easter eggs, and foreshadowing. Not to mention combining all of their existing characters in one narrative. The end product was widely considered to have been a success, but this wasn’t without some sacrifice. Since its release, rumored deleted scenes from the script and filming of both movies have always caught fan attention as fascinating “what if’s.” A new deleted scene has started making the rounds again, and it shines a light on one underrated character from the franchise.
A deleted from Infinity War makes the rounds
The scene takes place with the most entertaining crossover team of the movie – the Guardians of the Galaxy teaming up with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, during the fight with Thanos at Titan. In the released version of the scene, we see the Guardians, Doctor Strange, Peter Parker, and Tony Stark come up with a plan to attempt to remove the infinity gauntlet from Thanos’s hand. The plan was centered on Mantis’ ability to keep Thanos subdued long enough for the rest of the team to pry the gauntlet from his hand.
In this deleted scene, the fight takes a departure from what we saw in the final product. Instead of Thanos just defeating the Guardians and leaving for Wakanda, he instead uses the soul stone to separate their souls from their bodies.
While Doctor Strange and Iron Man are battling Thanos, Spider-Man retrieves the Guardians’ soulless bodies, and he and Mantis stare down at them helplessly. However, Doctor Strange reaches out to them through the Astral plane to explain what Thanos has done, and tells them that Mantis can retrieve their souls. Mantis attempts to wake them up, starting with Drax, and while her attempts initially fail, she eventually revives the rest following some encouragement from Spiderman, she eventually revives them. The scene hilariously ends with Spider-Man making a quip about Starlord’s weight, “You’re just super heavy.”
Finally time to give Mantis her flowers
Comments on the deleted scene were full of praise for Mantis for her apparent ability to override the power of an Infinity Stone. Mantis is an alien empath, who was introduced to the MCU in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as the living planet Ego’s pet. She was later revealed to be his daughter, and therefore Starlord’s half-sister.
As an empath, she has power over people’s emotions and can sense and manipulate them. When we first meet Mantis, we see that she is powerful enough to put the celestial Ego to sleep. In Infinity War, she is also strong enough to temporarily subdue Thanos.
But in the comics, Mantis’ powers run even deeper, as she is believed to be a Celestial named Madonna, one of the most ancient, and the first Celestial to give birth. While the MCU didn’t go down this route, her powers are still formidable. While this scene would have been a cool addition to the final product, many fans understood why it had to go. It would have significantly slowed down the pacing of the battle at Titan, as well as reduced the stakes of the movie as it drew to its climax.
Published: Oct 21, 2024 01:58 pm