‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Writer Explains the One Catch Behind Thanos Using the Stones

Half of the Avengers: Infinity War writing team says Thanos making a fist to wield the power of the Infinity Stones was introduced as a means of giving the superheroes a plausible chance at a fight.

Co-writer Stephen McFeely revealed the tidbit during the Infinity War commentary track as a team of superheroes, including Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, commence ganging up against the Mad Titan on his devastated home world.

“As you can imagine, when you have a gauntlet that has nearly unlimited power, and every time you use it you can do what you want … we wanted to create small physical rules that would allow people to hang in a fight with him, so the idea that he had to, you know, close his fist to use a stone was the bare minimum that allowed us to have a fight,” McFeely said.

“So that every choice they’re making, you’ll notice in that last minute of fighting, is to keep him from closing his fist. From Peter webbing it to the cape wrapping around it,” added director Joe Russo.

A mixture of superheroes — Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and half of the Guardians of the Galaxy — attempt to exploit that knowledge when they work to prevent Thanos from making a closed fist before their attempt to pry the gauntlet from Thanos’ paw. They very nearly succeed until an emotional Star-Lord disrupts Mantis’ psychological hold on Thanos after learning of lover Gamora’s murder.

That outburst resulted in Thanos maintaining control of the gauntlet and later using it to achieve his mission of annihilating half of all life in the universe. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo defended the distraught Star-Lord on the commentary track, saying all the superheroes — including Captain America and Thor — share equal blame in Thanos accomplishing his goal.

The creative team said the warlord is “almost unstoppable” in Infinity War, not because his assemblage of the six massively powerful Infinity Stones, but because the single-minded alien has “the strongest will.”

“I mean, that’s one of the things we always thought is that he’s not dangerous because he’s got the Stones, he’s dangerous ’cause he has the will to use them,” McFeely said.

Avengers: Infinity War is now available to own digitally ahead of its Aug. 14 premiere on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.