As the single most formidable threat that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had ever seen, a lot of fans were wondering why Thanos spent so much of the Infinity Saga having other villains carry out his bidding. After all, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame made it perfectly clear that he was more than capable of getting the job done himself and wiping out half of all life in the universe with just a snap of his fingers.
Even his much-heralded Black Order turned out to be hugely ineffective as Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight were little more than cannon fodder for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And with Endgame altering the timeline once again following the Avengers’ time heist, the Children of Thanos were reduced to bit part players in the movie’s climactic battle. In fact, Maw was the only one of the four that even had any dialogue in the final cut.
However, in a recent interview, actress Carrie Coon, who provided the motion capture and voice performance of Proxima Midnight in Infinity War, revealed that the initial plan was for her to have a much bigger role in Endgame after the new timeline rendered her alive and well, before a combination of scheduling conflicts and her pregnancy saw the idea shelved.
“I got a voice-over audition, it was not specified what the project was. They were being very secretive about it, but I was given some of the lines that did end up being in the film. The Russos were excited about the possibility of me actually physicalising the character as well, and they invited me to come down to Atlanta. I was pregnant and doing a play at the time, so I flew down and was on set with them for about 12 hours. No one ever dies. It’s very possible I could have my own Avengers movie next. But I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
Co-director Joe Russo previously admitted that earlier drafts of the script had given each member of the Black Order a backstory in order to add some depth to the characters, but with so much plot to cram into the epic double-header, there clearly wasn’t enough room. And as a result, by the time Avengers: Endgame rolled around, Thanos’ minions were indistinguishable from the rest of the CGI goons that the heroes mowed down with relative ease.
