Infinity War: Thanos Motivations Explained

In a new interview, the Russo brothers explain the motivations of the Mad Titans Thanos in The Avengers: Infinity War and the MCU.

Before we get to that, it recently became known that the backstory of Thanos has been cut from the movie, which saw fans reacting to in both the negative and the positive. I happened to side with the latter, as I feel we don’t need to see a young Thanos on screen or scenes in the movie anything like the awful Jason Aaron attempt at an origin story from the Thanos Rising Marvel comic book. I think some fans wanted to see a back story because of how bad the Justice League movie turned out, and they are afraid Thanos will be similar to a Steppenwolf–or any of the previous Marvel bland villains for that matter. 

The good news is that the Russo brothers now reveal the MCU Thanos motivations, which actually sounds pretty cool, and I can say I’m happy with. While the Infinity Gauntlet comic book saw Thanos attempting to win over Death by killing off half the universe, the MCU isn’t going that route and is keeping things more grounded for their general audience:

Thanos is this virtually indestructible character who’s stronger than the Hulk, and has invincible skin. He’s from a planet called Titan. Many years prior to the film his planet was experiencing a cataclysmic shift. They were running out of resources, and they were overpopulated. Thanos made a recommendation that they exterminate half the population randomly in order to save the rest of the population. Of course, the Titans rejected his notion, branded him a mad man, exiled him, and the planet ended up dying. So he has taken it upon himself to go planet-by-planet throughout the universe and wipe out half of the population of each planet as a way to correct the planet and bring it back into balance. 

Once he hears about the stones, he realizes that if he can get hold of all of the Infinity Stones he can control the entire universe. With the snap of his fingers he could correct the universe permanently by removing 50 per cent of life from it. So, these are incredible stakes for our characters. If the Avengers were built for anything, it’s for stopping Thanos from completing his goal.

And again in regards no backstory, the Russo brothers stress that The Avengers: Infinity War will be told from the perspective of Thanos, so it’s not like the Mad Titan is just popping up out of nowhere and we’ll know nothing about the character:  

JR: Without question. We always try to bring in topical themes into these films because they function on such a wide scale that we really want the audience to feel a sense of immediacy in their own lives about what they’re watching. Every villain is a hero in his own story and believes that what they’re doing is right. They’re just in conflict with the rest of the world. Thanos happens to believe that what he is doing is right, and he behaves nobly towards that goal. But he will not stop until he achieves the goal because he believes that there is weakness that stands between him and the completion of the goal. 

We thought it was fascinating to tell a story from the point of view of a villain. So when you watch the film, you’ll see that the film is told from Thanos’ perspective. That offers a unique insight into our heroes, but it also offers a unique insight into villains and how they think.

AR: It was a very organic choice in this film because we’re dealing with several different groups of characters, some of which have no knowledge of the existence of the other. Thanos is the one thing that unifies them all in this movie. So, orientating our story and telling it from his point of view had a lot of practicality to it as well.

Also, as seen in the trailers, Gamora (and probably Nebula) will be providing info on Thanos, so bear that in mind.

(via The Telegraph)

An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.

Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film, which is produced by Kevin Feige. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo and Stan Lee are the executive producers. Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely wrote the screenplay. “Avengers: Infinity War” releases in U.S. theaters on April 27, 2018.