How ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Might Change Thanos’ Story From The Comics

Thanos might not be trying to destroy the universe to impress a love interest. In a featurette promoting the next “Avengers” film on the “Doctor Strange” Blu-ray, “Infinity War” co-writer Stephen McFeely discussed Thanos’ motivation for getting the Infinity Stones, and it’s certainly seems like a departure from the comics.

“His goal is to rebalance the universe as he sees it,” McFeely said (via CBR). “When he figures out that the Infinity Stones could do this for him at the snap of a finger, that becomes his main goal.”

The “Infinity Gauntlet” comic books weren’t exactly about “rebalancing the universe.” Thanos was trying to impress Death. He used the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy half the universe’s population in an effort to prove his love.

Death is really an entity, but she appears in the comics in various physical forms. Sometimes she’s a grim reaper and sometimes she’s a beautiful woman. However, she isn’t the only being that takes a physical form. Love, Hate, the Stranger, Epoch, Chaos, Order, and Galactus are other entities that join the fight against Thanos in “Infinity Gauntlet,” according to Marvel Database.

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It isn’t clear if any of these characters will appear in “Avengers: Infinity War,” but the decision to change Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) motive seems to hint that they won’t. It’s possible that the movies opted to avoid the high concept entities in favor of the heroes that have already been introduced. After all, they already have a massive cast, which includes all of the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

Changes to the comics aren’t surprising. The Marvel Cinematic Universe uses the comics for inspiration, but they never faithfully adapt comics for the big screen. Still, it does seem that “Infinity War,” which will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, takes plenty of cues the source material. “Infinity Gauntlet” writer Jim Starlin noticed his book in a recent promotional video (seen at the top of this page), and it was marked up with post-its.

“Well, from the looks of all those notes sticking out of a copy of the ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ in this screen shot from ‘The Making of The Avengers: Infinity War,’ it would appear that Marvel has begun shooting the movie, maybe loosely based on ‘The Infinity Gauntlet.’ So very cool!” Starlin wrote on Facebook. “Anthony and Joe, I'm ready for my close up any time you are.”

“Avengers: Infinity War” is currently filming in Atlanta and is scheduled to hit theaters on May 4, 2018.