Avengers: Infinity War
Marvel ’s original plans forAvengers : Endgamecould have dramatically improved his character journey . The last two Avengers blockbusters essentially presented two different incline to Thanos : the Warrior inEndgame , and the Philosopher inAvengers : Infinity War . It was all done through the habit of fourth dimension travel , with the Thanos ofEndgameactually originating from 2014 .
In theory , this was supposed to make something of a loose - albeit turn back - character arc . The idea was that the Thanos of 2014 would be a cruel warlord , but that the Mad Titan would have mature a little over the next four years , becoming more philosophic and contemplative . Possession of the Infinity Stones would have countenance him to become increasingly surefooted , explaining why he abandoned the use of armor anda mysterious swordthat was herculean enough to demolish Captain America ’s shield . regrettably , the reference journey does n’t quite work , as it felt forced and disconnected . The two version of Thanos really do n’t go together all that well , and the four twelvemonth fourth dimension jump just did n’t finger like enough time for Thanos to change so drastically ( especially yield that he ’s already a thousand years previous ) .
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There is , however , some evidence that Marvel ’s original plan for Thanos would have shown a more constitutional electric arc . Concept art fromAvengers : Endgamestrongly indicate that Marvel primitively planned for the Avengers to encounter an earlier version of Thanos , one who may have been alive a decade or more ago . The art showsa past version of Nebula , who had intelligibly only lately been " take up " by the Mad Titan . " This would have been before she was tortured and reconstructed by Thanos , " conception artist Andy Park explain . " I was still hear to convey Nebula ’s badass looking at by sacrifice her hairstyles that keep with her character . But at the end of the daytime , that did n’t make it into the flick . " It ’s important to remember that Nebula was experimented upon by Thanos in her teenage yr , as punishment for her unsuccessful person to nonplus her sisterGamorain repeated competitions . The more organic the designs of Nebula , the further back in time they must be from .
This would have created an implicit fictional character journey for Thanos , and a far more efficacious one . The earlier iteration would have been Warrior Thanos , the warlord who personally razed countless worlds across the galaxy , and who sadistically tortured the adopted daughters he professed to love . Over the years , though , Thanos would presumptively have begun to feel that his method acting were n’t accomplishing anything , that for all his best efforts population maturation was still proceeding towards a cosmic extinction degree effect . Thus he seclude from participating missions of race murder , alternatively focusing his attention on acquiring the Infinity Stones , and work through intermediaries like Ronan the Accuser inGuardians of the Galaxy . It ’s only when the Infinity Stones are all in play that Thanos really uprise from his professorship again , so as to take the battle to the Avengers . The musical passage of sentence makes this whole arc seem natural , less pull than in the final theatrical stinger .
While this would have been a better arc forThanos , it ’s not hard to guess why Marvel may have abandon the idea . The fundamental problem was that Marvel desire past Nebula to replace her next self , which would have been impossible if the two Nebulas had been too unlike . The narrative demanded that past Nebula had already been subject to all the same cybernetic experimentation to betray the Avengers , and thus the timeline had to be adjusted - even if it did lead in a truncated character journey for Thanos .
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