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Avengers: Infinity War Almost Featured An Awesome Comic Book Easter Egg

Though Avengers: Infinity War was far from a strict adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet comic book arc, it did feature more nods and callbacks to the storyline than we were expecting. From big moments such as Thanos' peaceful ending to visuals such as Nebula's torture and a character crashing into Doctor Strange's Sanctum, there was a lot for fans to enjoy. At one point, though, an idea was floating around that probably would have given the film its best comic book easter egg.

Though Avengers: Infinity War was far from a strict adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet comic book arc, it did feature more nods and callbacks to the storyline than we were expecting. From big moments such as Thanos’ peaceful ending to visuals such as Nebula’s torture and a character crashing into Doctor Strange’s Sanctum, there was a lot for fans to enjoy. At one point, though, an idea was floating around that probably would have given the film its best comic book easter egg.

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Digital Domain’s VFX supervisor Kelly Port spoke to The Wrap and revealed that the climactic scene of Infinity War, in which Thanos finally snaps his fingers and halves the population of the universe, could have looked very different. Before finalizing the design of the sequence, Port and her team pitched the idea that the word “SNAP,” surrounded by a splattering of yellow triangles, could appear on screen. This would have been a direct lift from the page – as seen in the gallery below.

“As a fun aside, we explored the idea of lifting the actual graphic from the frame of the comic showing the snap, the little yellow action triangles for a single frame of the moment of the snap,” she said. “They appreciated the idea but didn’t ultimately go for it.”

This is an intriguing idea, if a little out-of-sync with the MCU’s house style which usually foregoes overtly stylized imagery. However, it would have actually fit in with the storyline. Thanks to the Reality Stone, Thanos can warp the world around him however he likes, as seen when he turned blaster bolts into bubbles earlier in the film.

So, if he wanted, he could make comic book-y onomatopoeia appear in the air. That being said, it might just have ended up looking like the 1960s Batman TV show. In hindsight, it’s probably for the best that they didn’t do it.

Port then went on to talk about the surprising lack of pressure that went into creating this sequence. Thanos’ Snap of Doom is basically the key moment from likely both Infinity War and Avengers 4, so you might have thought that Marvel execs would heavily scrutinize the VFX for it. As it happened, however, the process went “pretty smoothly.”

“Weirdly enough, you would think this particular shot… this particular critical moment, would have a tremendous amount of pressure and back and forth to get it just right, but it actually went pretty smoothly. I asked the compositor on this particular shot how it felt to be working on one of the most important shots in Marvel history. A shot representing the culmination of ten years of story. No pressure!”

Tell us, would you have liked to have seen this classic comic book moment perfectly replicated on the big screen in Avengers: Infinity War? Or would it not have worked? Have your say in the comments section below.