The genocidal snap that concluded Avengers: Infinity War may well have been the most talked about movie moment of 2018, as fans mourned their losses while speculating and debating on how Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were going to turn things around. Naturally, the subsequent Avengers: Endgame answered most of our questions, while leaving us with plenty of new ones, but for these past few months, there’s still been some lingering uncertainty about the exact nature of Thanos’ universe-wide purge.
Specifically, many fans were left wondering whether the snap really did wipe out half of all life in the universe, or if plants and animals were excluded from the mass dusting. After all, if the whole point of the snap was to prevent resource scarcity, then wouldn’t it defeat the purpose to also halve the volume of resources?
If so, then it sounds like the Mad Titan really didn’t think his plan through, because in a recent Q&A, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige clarified that plants and animals did indeed fall victim to the snap:
“Thanos snapped away half of all life, including animals. And probably even trees. We had some shots of Central Park we were going to use to lead Cap’s grief counseling scene, and we talked about what it’d look like with 50% less trees.”
That’s right, the villain who was so worried about resource scarcity that he was willing to commit mass genocide as a solution is also the biggest waster of resources that the universe has ever seen. Perhaps the Mad Titan isn’t as coldly rational as some fans would have you believe.
Oh well, maybe it’s best not to overthink it, especially when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have now succeeded in reversing the events of Avengers: Infinity War. In any case, with the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, the Infinity Saga is now officially at an end, and we’ll find out what’s next for the MCU when Marvel’s Phase 4 kicks off next year.
