Credit: Marvel StudiosAudiences almost had even more Thanos (Josh Brolin)!
Arguably one of the best Marvel villains of all time and certainly one of the best in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the shadow of Thanos (Brolin) can still be felt. In every project from Marvel Studios since Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), at least some mention or nod to Thanos (Brolin) has been given, but there was almost a lot more of the Mad Titan!
Related: Marvel’s Most Successful 2022 Movie Revealed, and It’s Not What You Think
First appearing as a looming presence in The Avengers (2012), Thanos (Brolin) became the everpresent threat in the early Phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even still, his appearance in Infinity War and Endgame seemed both out of nowhere and a little abrupt. The Mat Titan wasted no time in gathering the remaining Infinity Stones and laying waste to the entirety of existence with one snap of his fingers.
Over the course of the two films, audiences would see The Avengers actually lose, half of their number turning to dust before their eyes. The tragedy would eventually bring the two warring factions led by Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) back together, and along with every remaining Avenger, conduct the now infamous Time-Heist to bring back everything, and everyone they lost.
Still, there was a little background that was missing. In Infinity War, audiences witnessed Thanos (Brolin) collecting each and every Infinity Stone: the Space Stone from the Tesseract, the Reality Stone from The Collector (Benicio Del Toro), the Soul Stone from Vormir, and killing Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and the Time Stone from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) on Titan…but there was one missing. When audiences first saw Thanos (Brolin) on the Asgardian ship, he already had the Power Stone…
So where was that one? Viewers of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) will remember that, at the conclusion, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and the rest of the Guardians saved the Power Stone from Ronan (Lee Pace) and entrusted the protection thereof to Xandar and the Nova Corps. It’s taken for granted that Thanos (Brolin) decimated this civilization in his pursuit of the Power Stone, but this event nor what has become of Xandar was ever shown, and now fans know why.
The Direct reported on an interview with Thanos creator Jim Starlin, in which he talked about just how much he knew and had to keep secret to not spoil the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also revealed that there was a significant deleted scene, about 45 minutes long, that was going to be at the beginning of Infinity War, introducing the Mad Titan and showing him recovering that first Infinity Stone. It was far enough along that the scene had already been filmed, but filmmakers decided to scrap it due to VFX cost.
Related: A DCU and MCU Crossover? James Gunn Says It’s Possible…
The even bigger shame is that Starlin alleges Marvel planned to include this scene in an extended cut of the film on home release, something that never came to fruition. With the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), audiences might yet see what has become of Xandar and if, in the past few years, they’ve been able to rebuild or if there was nothing left to rebuild.
What do you think of this omission? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments below!