Thanos is a bloody great villain. Perhaps the best villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with Killmonger as a close second). And it isn’t just because of Josh Brolin’s phenomenal voice acting and motion capture performance either, but also Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s masterful character writing. Thanos is incredibly strong. Just look at the way he takes down Hulk with ease with merely one Infinity Stone in Infinity War and the way he holds his ground against Captain America, Iron Man and Thor without any of the Stones at the climax of Endgame.
But the Mad Titan is more than just brute strength. He has a set of principles that while morally skewed does make logical sense and unlike most comic book movie villains, he isn’t a moustache twirling baddie who wants to conquer the world. Thanos is incredibly riveting. We catch a quick glimpse of his origin story in Infinity War, but there’s so much more about the character that’s worth exploring. In a recent Reddit AMA, Executive Vice President of Production at Marvel Studios, Victoria Alonso was asked if we’ll ever see Thanos’ origin story on screen? To which she replied:
“To be honest with you I’ve always been interested in Thanos’ childhood and although I don’t know if we will see it in one of our movies, I think it’s important to know how he became who he was.”
Thanos’ comic book origin is compelling, shocking and even heartbreaking. The very first time his mother laid eyes on him as a newborn baby, she was driven mad by his unusual looks and even tried to kill him. Despite that, Thanos was mostly an introverted, mild-mannered genius as a child, one who aspired to become a scientist. However, as he grew older, he started to show signs of a mentally unstable individual in desperate need of help. For instance, he enjoyed drawing pictures of dead animals despite vomiting at the prospect of performing a dissection. Things slowly started to escalate as he became a teenager. He overcame his fear of killing and started doing experiments on various creatures in search of the truth behind his unusual appearance. The Mad Titan even experimented on himself.
But of course, the version of Thanos presented in the comics and movies are significantly different. In the comics, he enjoys killing. In the movies, he’s a pragmatist who wants to save the world. It would definitely be awesome to get the MCU version of Thanos’ origin story, if not on the big screen, then at least as a miniseries on Disney Plus.
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