The Russo Brothers as directors have hinted The Avengers: Infinity War movies would feature a whopping 67 characters. Now the writers behind the films, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, bring in a little more information and how Thanos the Mad Titan figures in the mix.
“Well, I mean that number is literally — that number comes from the fact that that’s everyone who’s already been introduced. If you line up all the character’s who are available to use from the prior Marvel movies, it racks up to about 60 something characters, let alone the new ones you could bring in,” Markus told Huff Post.
“We had our office filled with cards of everybody who was alive and available, and the brothers came in and went, ‘Whoa.’ So that doesn’t mean that everyone is, you know, there’s not going to be 67 lead parts,” McFeely added.
Well 67 characters will not be the main featured characters, Thanos will be.
“[Thanos]. It’s easy,” said McFeely. “Really giving him good scenes. You know, he’s never been the villain in any of the movies. He’s never been the main character in that way, so giving lots of good screen time to Thanos is paramount and pretty fun.”
“There’s an aspect of, you know, people know what’s coming, so our challenge is how best are we going to handle this somewhat known quantity. But also he’s barely been touched on. He’s at about 20 seconds of screen time,” said Markus.
Watch: Avengers: Infinity War teaser:
Thanos is the Baddest of the Bad feared by many in the Marvel Universe. The supervillain first appeared in Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973) and was created by writer-artist Jim Starlin. Debuting in the Bronze Age of Comic Books, the character has been featured in over four decades of Marvel continuity and a self-titled series. Thanos appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s various films; a cameo during the mid-credits of The Avengers (2012), Josh Brolin portrays the character in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and will reprise the role in both parts of Avengers: Infinity War (2018/2019).
Starlin has admitted the character is influenced by Jack Kirby’s Darkseid at DC Comics. What a fight that would be Thanos and Darkseid, may I see it in my life time. Getting back to Thanos, in the comics he was born on Saturn’s moon Titan, and is the child of Eternals Mentor and Sui-San. Thanos carries the Deviants gene, and as such shares the physical appearance of the Eternals’ cousin race. Thanos as a young person had become fascinated with nihilism and death, worshiping and eventually falling in love with the embodiment of death, Mistress Death. As an adult, Thanos attempts to create a new life for himself by starting a family, when he is visited again by Mistress Death, to honor her he murders his family.
Thanos is a mutant member of the race of superhumans known as the Titanian Eternals. The character possesses abilities common to the Eternals, but amplified to a higher degree through a combination of his mutant Eternal heritage, bionic amplification, mysticism. Demonstrating enormous superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, Thanos can absorb and project vast quantities of cosmic energy and is capable of telekinesis, telepathy and matter manipulation. He is a being of great power which rivals the gods. Later, wishing to impress Mistress Death, Thanos gathers an army of villainous aliens and begins a nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race. You can see that he has earned the name “The Mad Titan”.
The synopsis of The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 is: The Avengers must assemble once again to face the mad titan leader Thanos and his powerful infinity Gauntlet. You now know who Thanos is but what is the infinity Gauntlet? The gauntlet by itself is powerless but with six special stones set in the gauntlet it grants the wearer the power of God. The Infinity Stones are six immensely powerful objects tied to different aspects of the universe, created by the Cosmic Entities. Each of the stones possesses unique capabilities that have been enhanced and altered by various alien civilizations through the millennia. They are the Mind Gem, The Realty Gem, The Power Gem, The Space Gem, The Time Gem, and The Soul Gem. Each name gives a hint of the power they represent which is every aspect of existence in this universe. They make its user invincible and all powerful.
With out the gauntlet only beings of immense power can wield the stones, such as when the Celestials used the Orb to pass judgment on entire planets. Normal beings are usually unable to grasp the full power of the stones and are destroyed by them when direct contact is made, such as the illness of Jane Foster when she was exposed to the Aether, the disappearance of Red Skull as he grabed the Tesseract, and the destruction of Carina by the Orb. The Tesseract, the Aether, the Orb, and the Scepter have been confirmed as the Space, Reality, Power, and Mind Stones, respectively. Only the Soul and Time stones have yet to be revealed in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.
In this universe, there are two Infinity Gauntlets, one Gauntlet that contains replicas of the Infinity Stones is in Odin’s Vault, and was guarded by the Destroyer. The second Gauntlet was guarded at an unknown location. Thanos found it and took it, deciding to search for the Infinity Stones himself.
Prior to the movie Doctor Strange, the Time Stone was hinted by Kevin Feige to be the Eye of Agamotto
The Tesseract is named for the glowing cube and is capable of providing access to any location throughout the universe if used correctly. The unique element that composes the Tesseract has also been used to create advanced weaponry by races. This stone played an important role in humanity’s development during the early superhero age, attracting the attention of forces such as Red Skull and Thanos, both of whom wanted to use the Tesseract’s power for their own evil intents. It is later revealed that the cuboid is actually a containment unit built around the actual Infinity Stone, so that it could be somewhat safely handled and controlled. In Thor’s vision, the Tesseract is shattered to unveil the blue Space Stone contained within.
The Scepter was a weapon that utilized the yellow Mind Stone housed inside a blue computer module, which also masked the stone’s presence. Stark originally saw the Stone as a power source, whereas once J.A.R.V.I.S. had the opportunity to study the stone he stated it was more akin to a very powerful computer. The stone had already been in the possession of Thanos when he gave it to Loki to aide him in his invasion of Earth. This stone had the power to subjugate the minds of others, bending them to the will of the user, without losing any performance it projected the user’s consciousness to a higher plane of existence. The stone was also said to greatly increase the intelligence of those capable of wielding it, as shown in the cases of Loki and Wolfgang von Strucker. When Loki failed in conquest, the Scepter fell into the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D., eventually being passed on to HYDRA via sleeper agents. The Scepter was then used in various HYDRA experiments, and other capabilities such as mind control, astral and energy projection were discovered. The protective casing of the Scepter’s gem was eventually broken by Ultron and the contained stone was used to help bring life to the Vision. Thor later entrusted the stone to Vision, stating that Vision was worthy and it was given to him for safe keeping.
The Aether appears as a dark, red, viscous liquid, unlike the other Infinity Stone containment units that appear solid. The Aether acts like a symbiotic force, capable of being absorbed into the body of a living host, granting that person immense strength, power, and seemingly unlimited capabilities. Malekith planned to use the Aether’s reality bending abilities to cover all Nine Realms in darkness; however, he was stopped by the combined efforts of Thor and Jane Foster. Only two people, Jane Foster and Malekith, have been hosts for the Aether as far as we know, but circumstances stopped the full extent of the Aether’s powers from being discovered. Later it is shown that the Aether is actually an Infinity Stone contained in liquid form, and in Thor’s vision this liquid solidifies into the red Reality Stone.
The Orb is the protective housing of the purple Power Stone. The stone is an incredible power source, which, when used at full potential, has enough power to obliterate an entire planet. This stone was sought by Thanos, who told Ronan the Accuser to acquire it from the dead planet of Morag, in exchange for doing he would destroy Xandar for him. Star-Lord acquired the stone
instead and was prepared to give it to Taneleer Tivan with Gamora until its destructive power was unleashed at Knowhere. After that, Ronan obtained it and harnessed its energy with the intent of destroying all life on Xandar and killing Thanos. Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy were able to take the stone from Ronan and collectively harness its power to destroy him. They then gave the stone to Nova Prime Irani Rael for safe-keeping on Xandar.
Infinity War appears to be the event that Marvel has been building to ever since they first introduced Thanos (Josh Brolin) in the end credits of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. In that moment, the Avengers and company had an adversary that they could build toward, because prior to that, the MCU was a series of standalone solo adventures that lacked connective direction. Each phase of movies set the background for this Mega movie project. The budget could reach over a billion dollars. While not guaranteeing a success the stage has been set to brake all the box office records. My understanding is that the script has not been completed yet or the full plot set but I don’t think that the brain trust at Marvel is too worried. They will do a great job in producing a movie we will talk about for years. See you there and see us at Comics Talk, comicstalk.com. Walt Stiles
The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 hits May 4, 2018; Part 2 gets released May 3, 2019