‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Directors Explain Choices on Who Thanos Eradicated

With the arrival of Avengers: Infinity War on Blu-ray, directors Anthony and Joe Russo are breaking down some of the bigger aspects of the movie for fans, including how they chose which heroes should fall.

In a new Avengers: Infinity War featurette titled Choices, the directors break down how they chose the heroes that would fall to Thanos’ universe changing snap. As Anthony states, each death was tethered to who would react most emotionally to it.

“In terms of our choices about who Thanos would end up eradicating with his snap, you know it was very story focused,” Anthony said. “How do we pay off each individual character’s storyline most profoundly. The first person to go is Bucky Barnes, and it’s shot from Captain America’s perspective. You know we’re watching Cap go through the experience of watching him go away. We’re watching Okoye, who’s number one mission in life is to protect the king. She watches the King go in front of her. To see those characters react in those situations is very powerful and resonate.”

Other heroes that faded from existence include Groot, Scarlet Witch, Star-Lord, Mantis, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, and as Joe explains, it all could have been avoided if Thor would have just finished the job.

“Had he gone for a kill shot, that snap would not have happened,” Joe told ComicBook.com. “These are choices that characters who are feeling immense pain make and hopefully, the audience can learn to empathize with those characters because they can grow through stories. Stories can teach us things and that we should try to see every choice from the perspective of the character that made the choice.”

Other fans were annoyed at Star-Lord, who killed any chance of Iron Man’s team removing the gauntlet when he punched Thanos. Granted, he had just lost the love of his life, and the Avengers had other opportunities to take him down.

Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.