Since the arrival of the first full-length trailer for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, the masterminds behind the upcoming film are explaining their decision to position Thanos as a main character. The villain has been teased in other Marvel productions without being explored in depth, which inspired screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus to shed some light on this illusive character, as opposed to the franchise's more celebrated band of superheroes.
Speaking with Gizmodo, McFeely reveals that "in many ways, it’s Thanos’ movie. 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."
Thanos is described as "an amoral philosopher. He’s not the Devil, although he does sometimes have the Devil standing next to him." Markus admits that as a result, he and his partner aimed to create a "villain with understandable motivations and emotions."
McFeely and Markus also explain the unlikely merging of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy and how it will pan out in the film. "What is it when you put two characters together, even in a fairly normal traditional situation, but since we’ve invested in those characters and known them, we’re sort of delighted in the idea of those two people rubbing against each other," the duo reveals.
