Thor: The Dark World
TheMarvel Cinematic Universeshould have introduce Thanos in a very different way . Over the years , Marvel Studios has rightly arise a reputation for act the long game . In truth , though , Marvel do n’t design quite so far ahead as people think . Thanos was only present in the post - credits scene ofThe Avengersbecause Joss Whedon knew he needed Loki and The Other to be working for someone , and he ’s a fan of the brainsick Titan from the comics . The director has openly admit he had no theme at all how that would play out . It was around the same metre that Marvel await back at their form 1 stories and their preliminary script for Phase 2 , and pull in they had an awful circumstances of McGuffins that could be turn into Infinity Stones .
As affair came together , Marvel focused most of their attention on the Infinity Stones , and precious little on Thanos himself . That ’s why there are such marked differences between the Thanos ofThe AvengersandGuardians of the Galaxyand the villain who stepped into the fore inAvengers : Infinity War . The early films imagined a far more comic - book - exact Thanos , who wished to woo Death by challenging the Avengers , and who had destroyed Gamora ’s integral species - not just killed off half the population of Zen - Whoberi .
relate : None Of The Avengers : Infinity War Setup Was Actually Paid Off
Marvel did n’t really set out pinning down Thanos ' character and motivations until 2015 , when they hired Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to work on the script forAvengers : Infinity Warand what would becomeAvengers : Endgame . As a result , there was very little that could be done about these issues . But let ’s envisage a scenario where they ’d cover it differently , where they ’d adjudicate to lie the groundwork for their portrayal of Thanos just as much as for the Infinity Stones themselves . How could Thanos have been set up better , by making just the minor potential adjustments to the MCU ?
Odin’s Infinity Gauntlet Should Have Been Thanos' Too
The Infinity Gauntlet is in all probability theMCU ’s big continuity problem . One scene inThorshowed the Frost Giants raidingOdin ’s Treasure Vault , shoot for to take the Casket of Ancient Winters . In the desktop , visible for just a fraction of a secondment , there ’s a glimpse of the Infinity Gauntlet . It ’s worth remembering that Marvel expose the contents of Odin ’s Vault at San Diego Comic - Con 2011 , make object like the Infinity Gauntlet an crucial part of the picture show ’s marketing . So while this seems like a nictation - and - you’ll - miss - it Easter egg , the trueness is that Marvel strike something of a spotlight on it .
And then came the post - credits vista ofAvengers : Age of Ultron , the moment whenMarvel pretty much gave up on their install continuity . It shows Thanos donning the Infinity Gauntlet . " Fine , " he fume , " I ’ll do it myself . " It was a unknown scene ; not only was it impossible to understand why Thanos had acquired the Infinity Gauntlet ( which was now a left - handed boxing glove ) , it did n’t even fit withAge of Ultron ’s master narrative . It was ill-defined just why Ultron ’s fail attempt to wipe out humanity should exhort Thanos to get up off his president and take action . Worse still , it was also insufferable to work on out quite what was presuppose to be happening in the first place . McFeely and Markus said they were n’t concerned with that scene when writing the script forAvengers : Infinity War , choosing to cut it because they could n’t understand it . The Russo Brothers evoke that perhaps this was the present moment when Thanos took the Gauntlet from Nidavellir . finally , Marvel half - addressed this by having Hela announce Odin ’s version a fake inThor : Ragnarok .
understandably any exercise to smarten up Marvel ’s continuity simply has to address this issue , and the easiest way is to have Thanos take the Infinity Gauntlet from Asgard . A subtle reference inThor : The Dark Worldwould remind witness that Odin has possession of the Gauntlet ; perhaps the picture with the Book of Yggdrasil could have been set a little , so he took his son and Jane Foster into his vaults so as to start the verboten book and explain the Infinity Stones . That would have allowed Marvel to show the Infinity Gauntlet in the backdrop again , as the group walked through the vault to the ledger .
relate : How Red Skull Knew About The Soul Stone And Its Rules
That could then be followed up with a revised post - credits scene forAvengers : Age of Ultronthat showed Loki disguised as Odin reach the Infinity Gauntlet over to Thanos . This would signify there was a straightforward narration tie-in between the films , Loki ’s brief rule of Asgard afterThor : The Dark Worldwould make its mode into the ongoing story , and the greatest continuity job in the MCU would have been avoided . This would n’t even necessarily think the plot ofAvengers : Infinity Warhad to exchange much , either ; Thanos could have wiped the nanus out because he discover they were the ones who ’d made the Gauntlet , and he wanted to preserve his closed book .
Thomas Nelson Page 2 of 3 : Fixing Thanos ( & The Soul Stone ) In The Guardians of the Galaxy Movies
Rewrite Gamora’s Backstory In Guardians Of The Galaxy
According toGuardians of the Galaxy , Gamora is the last of her race , the Zehoberi people ; it ’s implied the total world was slaughter by Thanos , bequeath her the only subsister . In fact , she claim to have watched Thanos belt down her parent right before her eye before " take on " her as his weapon . That ’s a very different origin to the one shown in flashbacks inAvengers : Infinity War , where Thanos claim to have vote out off half the Zehoberi , and believed their man had become a paradise after his culling .
As noted , this issue arose because Marvel had n’t plan out Thanos ' MCU motivation at all at this stage . To castigate , all that require doing is an adjustment to the dialogue , with Gamora reflecting that her race was devastated and her parents were defeat ; the Nova Corps data - file on Gamora would have needed to be alter a niggling , but that ’s hardly significant .
Thanos Should Have Been A Character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
According to James Gunn , he drop a line the script forGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2without any consideration for the wider Infinity Saga . As he explained in a special feature on the Blu - ray release :
" I did n’t ever have an ending for what Guardians 2 was supposed to be . I did n’t have a single story point that was ever talk about with Marvel before I save the story … We write our own piddling history and then it goes off to [ the Russos ] . And I contribute these cat a script very , very early on . And they were , like , ' That ’s consummate , because that works great for us with where Nebula is , what we want to do with the tale . ' And it goes off . "
Related : How Nebula Changed Across The Guardians of the Galaxy Movies
While it ’s expert that Marvel afford their directors room to do their own thing , the fact stay thatGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2could have used a little piece of work , especially in a slightly - meandering 2d act where the primary plot grinds to a halt . One of the highlight of this 2nd enactment is the moral force between Gamora and Nebula , centered on a stunning sequence in which the two sisters solve their differences in roughshod way . With just a little workplace , and ideally a flashback sequence that featured Thanos , it could have been even stronger ; we could have been shown , not tell , of the couplet ’s aggressive story , and in go got a sense of thefalse sexual love Thanos aver to feel for Gamora .
This change does double duty , setting upAvengers : Infinity Warin a subtle way , but also improving the movie at deal . In the released film , the Mad Titan was a unusual , indistinct background knowledge comportment to two key character . His literal comprehension would have fed into the film ’s themes - of children who must give up on their parents and choose a novel family .
Set Up The Soul Stone In Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 & 2
A major hurdle forAvengers : Infinity Waris the fact that itsSoul Stone twistwasn’t lay up at all in previous pic . InGuardians of the Galaxy , there ’s no speck that Thanos is already obsess with the Infinity Stones , still less that Gamora had been scouring the cosmos looking for them for her " father " before she went rogue . When the Collector narrate the Guardians about the Infinity Stones , Gamora seems just as appalled to hear about them as the rest of the unlikely banding of a**-holes . This can be explained away as is - perhaps Gamora was acting , given she ’s only just fulfil the others - but it does look a trivial awkward in term of continuity . A single line of dialogue could make the problem , with Gamora simply telling the Collector , " I ’ve heard of them . "
actuate intoGuardians of the Galaxy Vol . 2 , along with the Gamora - Nebula - Thanos kinship , this would have been a much good office to seed the Soul Stone itself . One possibility would have been to in reality include the aspect in which Gamora revealed she know the Soul Stone ’s location to Nebula . However , if Marvel require to keep that a secret untilAvengers : Infinity War , they could have just had Gamora say she ’d been secretly working to debauch Thanos ' design for years . Perhaps she could have told her sis she knew secrets that Thanos must never learn ; it would efficaciously foreshadow theInfinity Warrevelation .
Page 3 of 3 : make Doctor Strange & Thor : Ragnarok Important To Thanos
Making The Ancient One Important To Thanos In Doctor Strange
lastly , one last adjustment would have explainedwhy Thanos wait until 2018before attempting to pull together the Infinity Stones . One of the ( probably accidental ) themes of Phase 3 is the passing of the mentors , with the next generation consume over . That ’s most notable inDoctor StrangeandThor : Ragnarok , where two of the most powerful establish figures in the MCU - the Ancient One and Odin - die , supplant by Stephen Strange as a likely Sorcerer Supreme and Thor as King of the Asgardian refugees . Both Odin and the Ancient One were hefty figure who Thanos would have struggled to overcome even if he ’d make headway possession of one or two Infinity Stones .
Related : Time Travel In The MCU & Avengers : Endgame Explained
This theme was likely unintentional ; some rough drawing ofDoctor Strangekept the Ancient One alert , just as the amusing book version lived on for several twelvemonth before being succeeded by Strange as Sorcerer Supreme . But it would n’t have been at all difficult to waver this into the real story of the MCU . first of all , in her decease scene , the Ancient One could have explicitly referred to a coming shadow , one she could not see because it would only devolve across the cosmos after her last . It would have been nothing more than a slight tweak to the actual dialogue , but it would have cautiously tied the Ancient One into the panoptic arras of the MCU ; the real menace is to come , and is known .
Confirm Thanos Was Waiting for Odin’s Death In Thor: Ragnarok
Then , there ’s the post - credits shot forThor : Ragnarok . The released version shows his assault on the Asgardian ship from Thor and Loki ’s perspective , but that does n’t really do much beyond tease a pre - credits scene in the next - but - one movie . For full setup point , it could have been from Thanos ' perspective , with the demented Titan organise the same attack . This would have allowed an opportunity for two thing : a undivided phone line of dialog in which Thanos reflected that , now the All - Father is beat , nothing that can stop him acquiring the Tesseract , in turn explicate why he sat in his floating chair for so recollective ; and tease the presence of the Black Order , four implausibly developing villains fromAvengers : Infinity War .
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None of this is intended as a criticism of Marvel Studios . The truth is that Marvel has accomplished an incredible feat ; they ’ve basically reinvented tenacious - form storytelling for the big filmdom . When the MCU was launched in 2008 , it was see as a opulent experiment that had a 50/50 chance of failing ; it was n’t really until the departure ofThe Avengersin 2012 that the MCU was proven to be a surefire achiever . Now , the MCU has become one of the strongest cinematic brands in the world , with a current global box office that stand at over $ 18.5 billion - and is sure to increase significantly with the impending release ofAvengers : Endgame . But the MCU ’s very succeeder can easily blind viewers to the fact that there have been stumble along the direction . Those have been particularly notable in the means the MCU has set up Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet , and it ’s important to revisit those mistakes to ensure they are n’t recur inMCU Phases 4through infinity .
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