Avengers Endgame: Thanos' EMOTIONAL backstory CUT from Infinity War – what was it?

Avengers: Endgame closes the chapter on the snap and the Infinity saga as created by Jim Starlin. What started with Avengers: Infinity War was finally wrapped with Endgame’s three-hour epic. Yet fans were not treated to the deeper reasons behind Thanos’ decision to snap half of life away.

What was Thanos’ backstory scene and why was it cut?

Warning: there are spoilers below for Avengers: Endgame.

Speaking with Comicbook.com’s Brandon Davis, Endgame’s co-director Joe Russo explained that yes, they did have a clear idea of Thanos’ backstory.

Russo said: “Of course. We did a lot of drafts of Infinity War that involved Thanos’s backstory,”

“We even had a draft where you saw ten minutes of his backstory.

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“You saw him as a child, you saw him try to convince his planet that it was doomed and recommend that they randomly kill half the population to save the planet.

“He gets sent to a prison off-planet and eventually watches the planet destroy itself.

“It is a whole other film, but sometimes that’s the value in a story room, of writing that draft in the script because you go ‘alright, at least I have that in my brain now.'”

The ten-minute scene was not in Avengers: Infinity War, nor was it in Endgame.

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Yet the scene likely informed much of Thanos actor Josh Brolin’s decisions.

Russo continued: “And I understand that and I can pitch it to Brolin, and he can hear that intimate level fo detail so we all know what his story is and how he feels about his past.

“He’s a very tortured character who’s sociopathic, but ultimately it’s benevolent sociopathy.”

The Russo brothers previously described Infinity War as Thanos’ movie, so the lack of a backstory on-screen was puzzling.

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At least now fans know the directors had it in mind when shooting, despite the scene never making it to the screen.

Joe Russo also described Thanos as the Genghis Khan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He said: “Clearly, Thanos, you know, is a thousand-year-old character who has fought everyone in the universe.

“He’s the greatest. He’s the Genghis Khan of the universe. He would have the greatest weapon.”

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in cinemas.