Credit: Marvel StudiosSo is James Cameron just a supervillain now?
It’s no secret that director James Cameron is no fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The creator of Avatar (2009) hasn’t been shy in sharing his opinions, making sure people are aware of his disdain for the franchise. He has criticized characterization, writing, and effects, but his latest comment takes the cake, and it has to do with Thanos (Josh Brolin).
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To date, Thanos (Brolin) has to be the biggest villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This may change with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), but to this point, Thanos (Brolin) has incurred the highest death toll that fans know of. The villain, using the Infinity Stones collected from across space and time, snapped away half of all existence across the entire universe in Avengers: Infinity War (2018). This devastating result caused the fracture of The Avengers and the death/retirement of three founding members, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans).
Such an intimidating and well-put-together villain was Thanos (Brolin), that every threat in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since has been compared to him: is it a “Thanos-level” threat? Well, it must not be that serious, then. It would only stand to reason, therefore, that Cameron would refer to this villain, especially since his climactic actions and death dethroned one of his movies as a top-box office earner. What is surprising, however, is how the director referenced the Mad Titan.
In a recent interview with Time, covered by The Direct, James Cameron made yet another reference to Thanos (Brolin) months after slamming the VFX that brought the character to life. This time, his comments were more…sympathetic. Not to the VFX team but rather to Thanos (Brolin) himself. Cameron referenced the character’s genocide saying:
“I can relate to Thanos… I thought he had a pretty viable answer. The problem is nobody is going to put up their hand to volunteer to be the half that has to go.”
So, in a nutshell, James Cameron just agreed with the graffiti from the post-Endgame Marvel Cinematic Universe, which said, “Thanos was right.” The outspoken environmentalist director admitted that he would be alright with voluntary genocide, saying that he can relate to The Mad Titan, perhaps for that very reason: it would benefit the environment. Fans of Marvel Studios know that The Avengers would strongly oppose Cameron’s comments and might even go back in time to stop James-Thanos…after all, they’ve done it before!
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Cameron has been assembling his own Infinity Stones, doing his best to dethrone Endgame and reclaim the second-highest-grossing film of all time with Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Regardless of if he’s successful or not, Cameron’s films still hold three out of the four highest-grossing films of all time: Avatar in first place, The Way of Water in third, and Titanic (1997) in fourth. With Way of Water still in select theaters, there’s still a possibility it may dethrone the Marvel movie but it has been losing steam lately.
What do you think of Cameron agreeing with Thanos? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments below!