If there’s anything negative you can say about the way Marvel Studios has handled the villain Thanos, it’s that they lack consistency.
Way back in 2012, when Thanos was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was in a quick tag at the end of “Avengers,” with the villain (who looked way more purple, by the way), just smiling at the screen while sitting in a chair. Then, when he was seen in the first “Guardians of the Galaxy,” he was, again, just shown briefly as sitting in a chair yelling at Ronan for not giving him the Infinity Stone. And finally, he was shown in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” in a quick post-credits scene, where he’s shown grabbing the Infinity Gauntlet and says, “I’ll do it myself.” All three appearances showed a different side of Thanos, with different skin color and different motivation.
If you look at those three appearances and compare them to his “Avengers: Infinity War” debut, it’s clear that Marvel Studios didn’t know what to do with the character until now. And apparently, that’s partly Joss Whedon’s fault.
In a new interview with IGN, the “Avengers” and ‘Age of Ultron’ writer-director admits that when he used Thanos in post-credits scenes, he didn’t have any plan in mind and didn’t actually know how to use Thanos. He just knew that Thanos was the endgame.
“Honestly, I kind of hung [Thanos] out to dry,” Whedon said. “I love Thanos. I love his apocalyptic vision, his love affair with death. I love his power. But, I don’t really understand it. He’s had a lot of power, and he was cool in the comics. And I’m like, Thanos is the ultimate Marvel villain! And then I was like, I don’t actually know what I would do with Thanos. So, I liked what [the Russo brothers] did so much, and I thought Josh Brolin killed it. And they did an amazing job of keeping that performance on-screen. But it wasn’t like I was like, here’s a set of directions. I was like, I’m gonna get through ‘Ultron,’ nap for four years, and then I’ll come to the premiere. Which I did! It was like, this is so cool!”
As he admits, Whedon just didn’t understand how to properly translate Thanos to the big screen. This is mainly because, in the comic books, Thanos does all of this dastardly deeds because of his love affair with Death. That’s right, in the comics, Thanos literally kills half the universe to impress the embodiment of Death. That’s definitely not something that really translates well to live-action, big-budget filmmaking.
“I thought they did what they needed to do. [Thanos falling in love with Death is] not a concept that will necessarily translate…Whereas they gave him an actual perspective and made him feel righteous to himself, which is always a better idea. So I liked what they did very much. I did not know about it, I certainly didn’t come up with it,” Whedon continued.
It’s nice to hear Whedon compliment ‘Infinity War.’ It might seem like a no-brainer, but after the release of ‘Ultron,’ the filmmaker pretty much ran screaming away from the MCU. But it’s good to hear that the godfather of the Avengers agrees with how the Russos have continued the legacy of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
