A recent meme edit shows Avengers: Endgame's Thanos being bested by none other than Tuco Salamanca from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
The video, which was uploaded to YouTube channel "Alternative Cuts," depicts the Mad Titan's iconic "I am inevitable" moment from the 2019 film. But just before Thanos can use the Infinity Stones to destroy the universe, he realizes that they have been stolen by Tuco (Raymond Cruz), who is in the process of snorting the Time Stone like it's Heisenberg's blue meth. Before the confused Thanos can stop the psychotic drug lord, Tuco proves that he is worthy by beating his opponent with Thor's hammer Mjølnir.
In the original version of the Endgame scene, Thanos is stopped at the last second by Tony Stark. Unlike Salamanca's battle with the Mad Titan, however, Stark's battle in the film ended with him sacrificing his life to save the universe. Joe Russo, who co-directed Avengers: Endgame with his brother Anthony, recently explained why it made sense to kill off the character at the end of the film. "Tony Stark is a character who was supposed to die," Russo said. "So that seemed like the more compelling arc to us, that it would be Stark who died. So that it would be a richer, more complex arc, and that’s why we chose him."
Both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have long had a major presence in internet meme culture, despite (or because of) how dark the AMC crime dramas often are. From the reaction GIF of Walter White from the Breaking Bad episode "Ozymandias" to videos which insert Saul Goodman into the film Morbius, the shows have given meme creators plenty of material to work with.
Fans of Better Call Saul, which recently aired the mid-season finale of its sixth and final season, came dangerously close last year to losing its star and the conclusion to the beloved spinoff series. Showrunner Peter Gould revealed in a recent interview that, had Bob Odenkirk not recovered from his heart scare back in July of last year, there would not have been a sixth season of Better Call Saul. "There's no backup plan for your lead [having] a heart attack. That's impossible," Gould said at the time. "We wouldn't have had a show. We would've scrapped the whole thing."
The Tuco-free Avengers: Endgame is available to stream on Disney+, while the complete series of Breaking Bad is available on Netflix. Season 6 of Better Call Saul returns on July 11 to AMC and AMC+.
Source: YouTube