Last year, Avengers: Infinity War co-writer Christopher Markus revealed that early drafts for the Marvel megahit spent more time delving into Thanos’ past, fleshing out the villain’s life on his home world of Titan before the civilization’s downfall. Ultimately, these scenes were scrapped, but in a new piece of concept art from Justin J. Sweet, we get a glimpse of how the tyrant may have looked in his younger days.
The image shows the Mad Titan himself sitting on his floating throne, with Sweet describing the illustration as a sketch of “young Thanos” intended for last year’s release. The brooding figure we see here is definitely a departure from what we saw in the eventual film, though previously released concept art has already made it very clear that the character went through an assortment of different designs and outfits before the Marvel team settled on his final look.
While Infinity War refrained from focusing too much on Thanos’ past, the villain still has at least one more movie in which his backstory could be developed, with the Mad Titan set to play an important role once again in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. That being said, there remains some uncertainty around what exactly the character’s role in Marvel’s Phase 3 finale will be, with various leaked material teasing an “even greater threat” for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to face.
With that in mind, the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War may not be a simple case of Avengers vs. Thanos, with various theories suggesting a new villain entering the fray, either as an ally to Thanos or a mutual enemy. That’s just speculation for the time being, but all will be revealed when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th, 2019.