Kevin Feige Addresses Fan Buildup Criticism From Thanos To Doom In ‘Avengers: Doomsay’: “Thanos Buildup Has Built Up In People’s Heads Over The Years”

After a slew of updates during the Marvel Studios presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, there were a bunch of post-panel interviews and one of them with studio head Kevin Feige finally addressed something that had been making waves since the launch of the new “Avengers: Doomsday” trailer, fans criticisms of RDJ‘s Doom not getting a proper “buildup” like what had happened with Thanos ahead of the two previous installments.

Speaking with YouTube’s The Brandon Davis Show (via Culture Crave), Feige is under the impression that the Thanos lead-up was mostly in the heads of fans rather than actually being something substantial. Certainly, the executive is going out of his way to downplay the minor hiccup fans have had with the introduction of their third iteration of the cinematic Doctor Doom (fourth if you count the unreleased Roger Corman-produced flick from the 1990s). And to play devil’s advocate for a second, for the most part, general audiences should be WAY more familiar with Doom (previously seen in multiple live-action movies, video games, and cartoons) than they ever were with Thanos.

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“The Thanos buildup has built up in people’s heads over the years. He sat on a chair at the end. He pulled a gauntlet out and said, ‘I’ll do it myself.’ And he yelled at Ronan on a video screen briefly; that was kind of it…I remember the memes making fun of Thanos for just sitting on a chair with ‘Infinity War’; we said, this is really the introduction of Thanos to people; that’s how that movie was built; that’s what we’re doing with Doctor Doom [with ‘Doomsday’]”

To be fair to those fans making that observation, Thanos was shown in an “Avengers” button scene (the biggest film of that early MCU era) and actually had a minor supporting part in James Gunn‘s “The Guardians of the Galaxy” with Josh Brolin firmly in the part (characters often referring to Thanos as a looming threat to everyone on a regular basis), arguably having more screen time than RDJ ever had leading up to “Doomsday” (a minor post-credit scene with a slightly older Franklin Richards). A minor buildup is still a buildup, since the Infinity Gauntlet scene was an obvious precursor plot point telegraphing the next big villain to the audience, something that they won’t be getting beforehand with this installment.

Feige also briefly confirmed trade reports that “Nova” (being penned by Michael Waldon of “Loki“) is now a feature film after pivoting from a streaming series. We’re sure that some sort of bigger update on that exciting cosmic project will be made in the future.

Anywho, “Avengers: Doomsday” is heading to theaters on December 18, minus IMAX screens, as Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune: Part 3” has gobbled up all those theaters since Disney was too slow on that draw (showcasing their own fake format instead with Infinity Vision for MCU releases, which isn’t offering anything of real substance to patrons other than some weird branding name attached to screenings and a possible upcharge to your ticket price).

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You can watch that full exchange between Feige and Davis below.