We still have another two years before we get to see Thanos take on Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the first part of Avengers: Infinity War. With the recent release of Captain America: Civil War, some fans hoped we may catch a glimpse of the villain in another post-credits scene, but the Mad Titan was nowhere to be found this time around! According to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, this was intentional. "Well, I mean, he’s going to have two movies," said Markus in an interview with The Verge. "So we didn’t want to play him out and then have people be like, 'Eh, more of this guy...'" McFeely joked, "'Yet again, they gave me 45 seconds of Thanos!' That does nobody any good. The Civil War story is about this group breaking up on their own accord, and they do not need to be helped by the guy from space."
Given that Civil War doesn't deal with any otherworldly instances (Avengers: Age Of Ultron at least had the Mind Stone as part of its plot), it makes sense that an appearance from Thanos might have seemed a little out of place. Markus was insistent on maintaining a grounded approach to the film as a whole. "We also wanted [Civil War] to be a very kind of boots-on-the-ground, grounded movie that set the stage for Infinity War, that sets all the Avengers apart from each other and at their weakest point. So that when this giant purple man does show up, they’re not ready for it."
The writers, who are penning the scripts for both Infinity War films, maintain that when Thanos does show up, he'll remain very closely characterized to his comic counterpart. "We’ll try to split the difference. We certainly don’t want to try to betray the Jim Starlin Thanos, all those comic runs. They get pretty trippy. That’s in the DNA of it. But before we get there, you’ll see Guardians 2, you’ll see Doctor Strange. My hope is that the movie audience will be a little bit more prepared for some trippier stuff."
Are you glad Thanos wasn't in Civil War, or would you have wanted another peek at the villain? Sound off below!
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