Avengers: Endgame Cut a Huge Battle With Thanos’ Army

Avengers: Endgame was full of moments that had fans talking months and months after release. One fight that viewers never got to see was just revealed in the Avengers: Endgame artbook. Thanos has conquered thousands of worlds by the time he reaches the heroes in Avengers: Infinity War. But, there was one struggle between his forces and some aliens got left on the cutting room floor. The people on that alien world had access to some sort of futuristic technology that gets shown off in great detail over a couple of pages in the artbook. However, like so many before them, they just couldn’t stand before the might of the Mad Titan. Endgame was already a pretty lengthy movie and it is interesting to see how many of these details just couldn’t make the final cut. The film could have easily ended up being four hours or more if these tough decisions didn’t end up getting made.

Fans got a taste of what Thanos’ army looked like early in their process back in the Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War — The Art of the Movie. Jerad Marantz said in that book, “I loved designing the Outriders. It was a real challenge.”

“After looking at the source material, I wanted them to have a biomechanics quality to them,” he continued. “There was concern that the Outriders may look too much like a Venom symbiote, and the challenge was to ensure they had a unique look. To achieve that, I decided to go biomechanical with them and incorporate the same shapes that are used in Thanos’ armor and Proxima Midnight’s and Corvus Glaive’s.”

Funny enough, there were some concerns about Thanos’ foot soldiers. Those Venom concerns were not about to die down with just a color swap. There was going to have to be substantial changes to make them distinct. The fighters underwent multiple head redesigns until Ryan Meinerding, Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development, advised opting for some small tweaks.

“I was playing around with all different types of teeth options, and it was Ryan that suggested I make the teeth flat. It was a really good call,” Marantz mentioned.

“The coolest thing about designing the Outriders was the assignment. This was the first time the Marvel Universe had an alien-creature army — there have been aliens but not an army of beasts. It was an incredible opportunity to do something unique.”