Avengers: Infinity War writers say Thanos is the main character of the film

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

At long last, we'll finally be properly introduced to Thanos (Josh Brolin) in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, and I'm not talking about some cameo or post-credit scene either, as the Mad Titan will finally prove just why he's the biggest and baddest villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, the villain will apparently be featured to such a degree that you could argue that the film doesn't belong to the Avengers, but to Thanos himself.

INFINITY WAR co-writer Stephen McFeely seems to agree with that, as he told Empire (via CBM) that "You could call this movie Avengers: Thanos if you wanted to. He is the main character." McFeely, along with co-writer Christopher Markus, were faced with the task of transforming Thanos into a fully fleshed out villain, and Markus told io9 that they took inspiration from Thanos creator Jim Starlin. "Thanos is an amoral philosopher. He’s not the Devil, although he does sometimes have the Devil standing next to him," Markus said. "We wanted that all the way through—to have a villain with understandable motivations and emotions. Thanos has family. Thanos has two daughters, that we know of. Thanos has eight million backstories in the comics [and] they’re all kind of sad." Given just how many characters will be appearing in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, it would be daunting to attempt to bring Thanos to life when you're spending so much time with the heroes, but McFeely and Markus avoided that by making Thanos the  lead.

Very often, in the screenwriting weeds, we’re trying to get a character up and off the ground and so the bad guy tends to be a foil for the development of the hero. That’s not the case here. If anything, it’s the opposite. Our heroes are foils for the villain, whose story we need to tell at large.

Marvel has handed out Thanos tidbits all too briefly over the years, so it will be great to finally get to spend some serious time with the character, and we're sure to feel every tragic step of Thanos' Infinity Stone quest along the way. "Every time you collect [a stone], it can’t just be a check mark," McFeely said. "It has to do something characterful. It’s got to move the plot forward but it also has to [have] stakes and cost for characters at the time, so that it’s not just a shopping spree. I think we’ve done that and boy, we’re going to wrench some emotion out of each and every one of those moments that we can."

The official synopsis for AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR:

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.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR will hit theaters on April 27, 2018.