Cue the calls for an extended cut.
Comics writer and Thanos creator Jim Starlin has claimed in a new interview that 45 minutes of Avengers: Infinity War focusing on the iconic villainous character was cut from the superhero blockbuster.
Released in 2018, the Marvel movie revolves around the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy as they attempt to prevent Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) from collecting the six all-powerful Infinity Stones in a bid to kill half of all the universe’s life.
In order to establish Thanos as a formidable threat, the film begins in media res with the character already in possession of one of the stones – the Power Stone – having wreaked destruction on the planet of Xandar to get it. He then uses the Power Stone to overpower Hulk, Loki and Thor and take the Space Stone from them.
You can watch a snippet of the scene right here:
However, according to Starlin, the introduction was once intended to be much longer, showing how Thanos got the Power Stone in the first place.
The comics writer told Near Mint Condition:
“It was kind of funny, just before Infinity War came out, I had been in contact with Joe Russo, one of the directors.
“When I was on the set, [Christopher] Marcus and [Stephen] McFeely [the movie’s writers] told me everything that they were doing in the two movies. They ran me down this hallway that had all the concept paintings up on the wall and so for a year and a half, I had to keep my mouth shut.
“But about a month before the movie came out, I got an email or something from Joe saying: ‘The 45 minutes of Thanos that we had at the beginning of Infinity War, we had it cut.’ There was a whole sequence of him getting the first gem and they had to cut that out.
“They had shot it, but they never wanted to spend the money on the effects and they didn’t want the movie to be as long as the second one [Avengers: Endgame] was. They didn’t realise it was going to be quite the hit it was.”
Starlin added that he wishes that the Avengers: Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo would release an extended cut of the movie featuring the scene in its entirety.
He also explained that while he was nervous about the film upon hearing the sequence was removed, his fears melted away very quickly into watching the finished project, stating: “Two minutes in, even before the Hulk showed up, I go: ‘I got nothing to worry about. This is terrific.'”
Speaking more generally about the movie’s depiction of the Thanos storyline, Sterlin said:
“I was really quite surprised how maybe they didn’t follow the letter of the characters in the story but they followed the spirit most definitely.
“That was more than good enough for me. I love those movies.”
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