MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

6. Thanos' Introduction Was The Hardest Scene To Write

Following on from a brief tease in The Avengers, Thanos makes his proper MCU debut in Guardians of the Galaxy, serving as a background antagonist to main villain Ronan the Accuser.

James Gunn has since said that the character introductions were the hardest parts of the film to write and, within that, Thanos' was the most difficult to crack because it was more in service of the Avengers and MCU than it was Guardians of the Galaxy itself. Speaking to Vulture, he said:

"I always wanted to have Thanos in there, but from a structural standpoint, you don’t need him. So that’s part of it, and then part of it is the fact that you’re setting up this incredibly powerful character, but you don’t want to belittle the actual antagonist of the film, which is Ronan. You don’t want him to seem like a big wussy. So how do you make that work?"

That led to Ronan killing the Other as a show of his own strength, although even that proved difficult to write too.