'Avengers: Infinity War' Creative Team Reveals Why Thanos Waited to Collect the Stones

By the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos succeeded in his mission, using the six Infinity Stones to snap half of the living universe out of existence. While Thanos made his intentions very clear throughout the movie, there was one part of his story that fans still couldn't wrap their heads around.

Why did Thanos wait so long to collect the stones? He's been powerful for quite some time, and the stones have been floating around since the events of The Avengers. If he wanted to "save the universe from itself," what was he waiting for?

During the audio commentary on the Avengers: Infinity War home release, the creative team explains that Thanos needed one final piece to fall into place before he could begin his conquest.

"The reason why he has not gone after the stones before is because the minute he does, the forces of the universe are gonna line up against him," says director Joe Russo. "If he doesn't know where the Soul Stone is, then what is the point?"

Screenwriter Stephen McFeely goes on to explain that once Thanos got his hands on Nebula, the plans all started to come together.

"He figured out where the Soul Stone was because he captured Nebula on his ship and rooted around in her brain and found out that Gamora knew where the Soul Stone was," he says.

It's also good to remember that Thanos did have at least one of the Infinity Stones in his possession previously. It was Thanos who gave Loki the scepter, which contained the Mind Stone, before he attacked Earth in the first Avengers movie. One of Loki's tasks there was to retrieve the Space Stone (a.k.a. the Tesseract) and return it to Thanos when the job was completed. Thanos also sent Ronan to steal the Power Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy.

While Thanos may have been patient in waiting to make his biggest moves, he had been slowly going after the stones for quite a while. He just didn't show his hand until it was too late for anyone to try and stop him.

Does that explanation help make a little more sense out of Thanos' motives in Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know in the comments!

Avengers: Infinity War is currently available on Digital HD, and arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on August 14. Avengers 4 is set to hit theaters on May 3, 2019.