Avengers: Infinity War ended with the assembled heroes at their darkest point. Despite the galaxy’s mightiest protectors having teamed up to stop him, Thanos managed to come out on top and use the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all life in the universe, including many of the Avengers. But who’s to blame for how things went really, really south?
According to screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, many of the heroes share the blame. Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, Thor, Cap, Iron Man, etc. But, in that sense, maybe it isn’t anyone’s fault at all and Thanos’ victory couldn’t have been avoided in the first place?
When asked about the fact that many seem to blame Peter Quill for what happened, and if he agrees with that, McFeely told Collider the following:
“I do love this debate I’ve seen online of ‘It’s Star-Lord’s fault! It’s Doctor Strange’s fault! It’s Thor’s fault!’ Everyone has a part to play in their failure. If Steve and Tony could’ve just gotten together everybody would’ve been… If Civil War hadn’t have happened the Avengers would’ve been united. There’s plenty of blame to go around and maybe there’s nothing they could’ve done about it.”
The three that McFeely singles out at first are perhaps those who are most to blame for how things went down in Infinity War. For starters, Star-Lord let his emotions get the better of him, lashing out at the Mad Titan and causing his allies’ plan to remove the Gauntlet from Thanos’ arm to fail.
Next, Strange handed over the Time Stone in exchange for Tony Stark’s life. Finally, Thor thought he’d fatally stabbed the villain. But, as Thanos himself commented, he should have gone for the head, as the purple bad guy manages to pull through enough to snap his fingers.
The writer raises an interesting point, though, in that perhaps the ultimate blame rests on the fact that the Avengers team was shattered back in Captain America: Civil War. Perhaps if they stood as one united front, they might have fared better? Unfortunately, now we’ll never know… Or will we?
Overwhelming evidence suggests that the heroes will travel back in time to correct their mistakes in Avengers 4. So hopefully, the Infinity War blame game will cease to matter when the sequel arrives next May.
