Why ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Changed Thanos’ Goal From the Comics

As the villain of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos is one of the scariest characters to ever grace the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the character went through a lot of changes in his leap from the comic book pages to the big screen.

The filmmakers behind the new Avengers movie explained why they didn’t include Thanos’ obsession with death in the film, and gave him different motivations for his quest to obtain the Infinity Stones.

Warning: Minor spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War below.

“It’s our responsibility to carry forward the story as it’s been set out,” co-director Anthony Russo told Vulture. “You’re spending two-and-a-half hours with this many characters, so then adding in some character that the audience has no relationship to, having to explain the backstory of that character, making you care about that character, making Thanos care about that character, making that character interesting to the other characters…”

“That would also be creating another level, another plane of existence, that the MCU possibly hasn’t gotten to yet,” said co-writer Stephen McFeely.

In the comics, Thanos wants to vanquish all life in an effort to impress Death — or, at least, the personification of the concept. Death is often portrayed a woman in the pages of Marvel Comics, and Thanos is in love with her.

But in the film, Thanos has more altruistic goals, in a sense. He’s seen the tragedy of overpopulation first hand, and its his quest to wipe out half of all life across existence in an effort of saving the finite resources in the universe. With less mouths to feed, more people can eat.

“We talked about his motivation, and much of the motivation connected to Lady Death is about balance,” said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “It’s the balance between life and death, the belief that life was getting unchecked and out of hand and there needed to be a correction. We wanted to make that the driving force of Thanos and his backstory. That’s where Chris and Steve and Joe and Anthony found a more natural, grounded way … well, as grounded as a giant Mad Titan can be.”

The absence of Death also allowed greater story potential for Gamora.

“We also wanted to create a really incredible arc for Zoe [Saldana] to play,” Russo said. “She’s probably the most heroic, brave character in the movie. So that, to us, is fulfilling the promise of the storytelling that we have in front of us, versus trying to bring together 23 superheroes in a satisfying way while introducing an ancillary character who doesn’t mean anything to them.”

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing.

Do you buy the filmmakers’ reasoning for omitting Death? Do you wish Avengers: Infinity War would have been more like the comics? Let us know how you feel in the comments section!