10 Exact Moments Fans Turned On Their Favourite Movie Characters
2. Thanos - From Well-Intentioned Extremist To Omnicidal Maniac
In another tribute to Marvel's writing prowess (and Josh Brolin's gravitas-infused performance), Thanos emerged from Infinity War as one of cinema's most nuanced villains. The movie was very much a dark inversion of the typical hero's saga, in which a lone hero overcomes great odds and suffers enormous loss on his way to succeeding in his quest. It just so happened in this case that the hero's quest involved mass murder on a galactic scale.
Incredibly, Thanos was so well written that it led to the creation of the "Thanos was Right" meme, as a surprising number of people sided with the interplanetary despot's extreme views on overpopulation. Then, a year later, Disney removed any shred of nuance from his character in the sequel. Endgame portrayed Thanos as an omnicidal tyrant with a God complex, shifting his goals from population control to wiping out all life in the universe and remaking it in his image.
It was a little disappointing to see Marvel's greatest bad guy reduced to such cartoonish villainy, but we can't blame the writers for wanting to emphasise that people who solve their problems through genocide are not role models.