Infinity War Writers Explain Thanos Properly Utilizing the Infinity Stones

Avengers: Infinity War is only days away form debuting in theaters, and the film's writers aren't about to divulge any of its secrets. But that doesn't mean Steven McFeely and Christopher Markus are remaining completely mum about what went into making Thanos the biggest, baddest and most layered villain the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever seen.

Speaking with CBR, the screenwriting duo explained exactly what it is that sets the Mad Titan apart from the MCU's previous bad guys, and why Infinity War's big fight scenes took a little bit extra thought to get just right. The pair also explain how Hawkeye's Captain America: Civil War role informed the way the latest Marvel film was put together, the joy in bringing the Guardians of the Galaxy to the Avengers party, and which Marvel hero we're least likely to ever see make the leap from comics to the big screen.

CBR: One of the things that was really impressive about Civil War was it had so many characters, so many things it had to do -- and this movie, by all accounts, is that times 15? 20? -- yet Civil War retained a true sense of personal stakes that was really the heart of it. How was your approach in Infinity War, in doing that same thing?

Steven McFeely: Oh, we threw that out. [Laughs]

Christopher Markus: It stayed the same. We had to find the personal connection of each hero to the particular facet of the story they were in. Not everybody would relate to every part, as well, which is part of the reason, you'll find, that we sort of separated them into groups, into paths, that go in different places. One, it's more manageable to tell a story with 50 million people if you can break them up into smaller units. But also, not everybody was perfectly suited for each adventure. We only brought them in when the story demanded it, and therefore only brought them in when --

McFeely: Thanos wanted them.

Markus: When their stakes were involved. People seem disconnected when they're in the movie too early.

McFeely: That took a while to figure out. Our inclination was, "What's Steve been up to? Let's show him for 10 minutes, do a whole adventure, and then stuff comes to him." It goes away after a while, because that's a miniseries, not a movie. If you remember Hawkeye in Civil War -- he comes in at a very specific moment. "I'm here to bail her out, and let's get going." It's a little more like that for a lot of our characters. When the story demands it, they show up. You'll find out how they're doing, and what's been going on sort of on the run, but we won't spend five minutes with Rhodey eating ice cream.

As much as we'd all love that.

Markus: Although Cheadle nailed it!

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Thanos has been looming for years, now. The best villains are the ones that even if they aren't strictly sympathetic, still have a compelling motivation. In the wrong hands, Thanos could be just a generic alien villain. What was your approach in grounding such a character that by nature isn't really grounded?

McFeely: Two things: Story structure-wise, he's the hub of the wheel. Because of what he's doing, everyone has to react to him. Very often in an origin story, it's going to be, "How does that villain mirror the main character?" Doctor Strange, or Cap, somebody like that. Well, you've got 23 main characters -- that's not going to be the same dynamic.

He's the star of the movie. That's really how we tried to do it. This is the Thanos movie, and Thanos is going to undergo trials, he's going to win, he's going to lose, he's going to try to get to the finish line, and the camera's here -- it's on his shoulder. And there are the obstacles.

Markus: But even in the comics, when he has crazy motivations -- trying to make Death fall in love with him -- he has feelings. He's an interesting guy. We never wanted him to go back into two dimensions when he had such potential to be fascinating.

Part of that was really helped by the fact that, coming into our story, he has two adopted daughters. Very few villains come carrying bad Thanksgiving family issues like Thanos does, and that was fun to mine.

The most famous Thanos story is one we're seeing at least echoes of in this film -- Infinity Gauntlet. Of course, the situations in the movie are very different from the comics, but how did that story and its surrounding stories inspire you directly or indirectly?

McFeely: Scale. Those are big, universe-ending events, and that was one of the watchwords from Kevin -- don't be afraid to reach really high and ambitiously for the stakes of the movie.

Winter Soldier, Civil War, we've always taken the parts that are the most helpful to us and made a different story out of it. We'll do the same thing here, but the ambition is the same. The scale...

Markus: Starlin has a cosmic view of things, and things can get quite psychedelic. [Thanos] has stones that do anything, and if all he's doing is punching you with it, it's like, well, he's not that good at it.

McFeely: That was a big conversation for many months. He's got to use each stone in a way that is true to the stone. What does that mean? You can't just pay off with laser punching. We need some unique events.

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This film brings in the Guardians of the Galaxy characters, who you hadn't worked with them before, and are closely associated with James Gunn, creatively, on screen. What was it like writing those characters for the first time, and nailing those very specific voices?

Markus: It's a lot of fun. They do everything a hero is not supposed to do in a movie. They're incredibly off topic, so they are really fun. We've been doing Cap -- Cap does not say anything that isn't pretty much on point. Rocket will wonder how much he's getting paid. He and Quill are constantly undercutting the gravity of the situation.

Also, I really enjoyed writing for Nebula. I think she's fantastic.

McFeely: You can already imagine Rocket with someone and go, "Oh, I'd like to see that person react." Nebula does the same thing but in a different way. Against somebody funny, she's not going to give them anything. And that, in and of itself, is funny.

Markus: She's like the worst audience for a funny person.

Something I'm curious about, from a speculative standpoint -- in the Marvel movies you've written together, you've covered a huge amount of ground. Different characters, different eras, different types of stories -- given all that, are there still Marvel characters out there you'd like to take on?

Markus: There are characters in the comics... I don't know how you do them.

Such as?

Markus: Literally, no one will ever do this -- I say this, and then it'll be announced -- I think Machine Man is hilarious.

I like Moon Knight, but you have to handle Moon Knight in a very careful way, or he just becomes negative image Batman. But there are certain runs in the comics where you go, "That's crazy."

McFeely: I'd love to see Namor. I don't think they even have the rights to him. But that's a guy with a big upside, I think.

Hate to get ahead of ourselves, but let's talk sequel just a bit. Originally these movies were announced as Part 1 and Part 2, but now that's not the case. Since they were filmed very closely together, do you still see them as two parts of a whole?

McFeely: Nothing changed about the movies. The label changed.

Markus: They are two separate works addressing a similar topic. The reason it was changed is because it seemed to shortchange the second one as "some more." And it's really a very different movie and a different tone and a different approach to things, and it seemed only right to let it live on its own, give it its own name.

McFeely: The reason you haven't heard the second title is because we don't want to talk about the second title, we want to talk about this. Even if at the end of the movie it said, "Avengers will return in blank," you're going to talk about that. I don't want you talking about that. I want you to talk about this. Part 2 is the same idea. "Oh yeah, it's only half the story." This is a whole story.

For both of you, which character surprised you in how much fun you had writing them?

McFeely: Thor. Hemsworth will steal both these movies. That's a bit of a nod to Taika [Waititi] and Eric Pearson who re-toned him, but also we put him on a really nice journey that gets a lot out of him as an actor. So I'm really proud of him.

Markus: I will say Gamora. And particularly, Zoe Saldana acts the shit out of it.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Tom Hiddleston, and Josh Brolin. The film arrives April 27.