Avengers: Endgame - 10 Secrets We Just Learned From The Writers At Comic-Con

7. Figuring Out Thanos' Endgame Story Proved Tricky

Avengers Endgame Thanos
Marvel Studios

In Infinity War, Thanos has a clear purpose, and one fixed goal. Collecting the Infinity Stones is all he cares about, and so, the film was built around this mission, almost making him the protagonist.

But once he's achieved that goal... what do you do with him? That was the question facing Markus and McFeely during the development of Endgame, and it proved quite tricky to answer.

You can't just write him out of the film entirely, because if the story is about the Avengers trying to undo his universe-obliterating snap, then he will absolutely want to stop them doing that, right? But if you literally just showed him beating the Avengers in the last movie, how do you tone down his power levels (or make the rematch more even), without it seeming like a cheap nerf?

The Thanos conundrum caused the writers headaches for weeks, but the problem was solved by Endgame executive producer Trinh Tran in one succinct sentence: "what if we just killed him?"

Once the team had that idea nailed down, Markus said that it helped solidify Thanos' entire story arc, because it signified that his one sole purpose had been truly, irreversibly, fulfilled: his death sealed his victory.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!