Although Thanos was introduced way back in 2012's Avengers Assemble, he hasn't really made his presence felt yet. That won't be the case in phase three of the MCU; the Mad Titan will be taking centre stage in the Avengers: Infinity War movies, and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are looking forward to finally giving the villain his due.
"You know, he’s never been the villain in any of the movies", McFeely told The Huffington Post. "He’s never been the main character in that way, so giving lots of good screen time to Thanos is paramount and pretty fun. He hasn’t had an amazing scene. I think it’s an advantage ultimately, right? Because people are anticipating this guy coming in and really delivering the goods. So, I think they’re eager, and we just have to deliver it. We don’t have to convince them that he’s gonna be interesting. We just have to execute what has been teased.”
There's been plenty of speculation as to just how many heroes Thanos will be going up against, and Markus set the record straight; “If you line up all the characters who are available to use from the prior Marvel Studios movies, it racks up to about 60-something characters, let alone the new ones you could bring in.”
“We had our office filled with cards of everybody who was alive and available", McFeely added, "and the [Russo] brothers came in and went, ‘Whoa.’ So that does not mean that everyone is, you know, there is not going to be 67 lead parts.”
While Marvel are excellent when it comes to depiciting their heroes on screen, the villains have often been underwhelming. Thanos has been built up as a huge, otherworldly threat across multiple movies now, so there's a lot of pressure to deliver. Having seen the impressive juggling act the Russos pull off with Captain America: Civil War, I have absolutely no doubt that Infinity War is in safe hands.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 is due to arrive in UK cinemas on April 27, 2018 before opening in US theatres on May 4th, 2018.
Images: Marvel
