MCU is the biggest franchise and brand in the entire Hollywood. The collective box office earnings of Marvel movies exceeds $14 Billion and the two upcoming Infinity War movies are expected to rake in at least $3 Billion give or take at the box office.
Till now 18 Marvel movies have been released and they all have led to the greatest comic book event in the history of Marvel comics known as “Infinity War”. It is divided into two parts but both movies are totally separate without any major inter-linkages. According to reports, we will see 67 major comic book characters in Avengers Infinity War and Avengers 4, of which half of them are superheroes.
For the first time, we will see Mad Titan himself leading an invasion along with his children also known as Black Order to retrieve the six Infinity stones which will enable him to assemble the gauntlet and control the cosmic singularities that guide the fundamental forces of existence. He is the most terrifying and formidable adversary that Avengers and Guardians have ever faced.
It’s been a while since the Mad Titan debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even though just a Post Credits appearance (or a minimal presence in the case of The Avengers and GOTG Vol. 1), Thanos has been marauding over the Marvel universe and smirking as events pass by one after the other.
When Red Skull got hold of the Tesseract, Thanos didn’t come. When Dormammu almost conquered the Earth, Thanos didn’t come. When Xandar was threatened by Ronan and the Power Stone, Thanos didn’t come. When Asgard blew up, even then Thanos didn’t care enough to show up. So why has he come now? Why Thanos cherry picked this particular time period to invade and lay waste to Earth?
Turns out, there is a major reason behind it. Here’s why Thanos decided to attack Earth only now.
First introduced in The Avengers, Thanos was making plans to get his hands on the Infinity Stones all along. He then manipulated Ronan into using the Power Stone to attack Xandar. At the end of Age of Ultron, Thanos finally decides to go solo and “do it himself”. Thanos was then not seen again until Thor: Ragnarok. His ship appeared before the Asgardian refugee ship as the screen faded to black. That was the last of him we saw in the Theaters. But what took him so long?
The MCU has recently earned a horrible track record of managing its timeline in Phase 3. All movies have been claimed to have been happening in real time. So if you take out the post-credits scenes of each movie, Thanos makes only one cinematic appearance, i.e. in GOTG Vol. 1 which is a movie almost 4 years old.
So when Thanos finally comes for his Infinity Stones and starts his quest for universal domination, people are left scratching their heads as to why The Mad Titan decided to do it now when he could have just gone after the stones much, much earlier. There has to be a reason behind it.
What is Thanos’ game plan?
Up until now, the Mad Titan has been using underlings to do his bidding. Loki and Ronan were just pawns in Thanos’ game. Why show yourself when you can have others do the work for you? Given the presence of the Avengers, obtaining an Infinity Stone, the majority of which are located on Earth, was a daunting task even for the Mad Titan.
So he went to working from the shadows. Nobody even knew that Thanos existed as he executed his plan – a meticulous web of strategies to complete his Infinity Gauntlet. The only ones who knew about Thanos were Gamora and Nebula and the Guardians were still clueless. Thor went on a two-year mission to investigate why the Infinity Stones were being targeted all of a sudden and still found nothing. Thanos played the game of pulling the strings from the Shadows with Godlike precision.
The Major Players of the MCU are dead!
The ones we are talking about are – Ego, the Ancient One, and Odin. Ego died at the hands of his own son and his team aka Peter Quill and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Ego was a celestial and commanded vast cosmic power. Since like Thanos, he also opted for Cosmic Domination, they could be considered enemies.
The Ancient One was the magical protector of the Earth. She had managed to keep the extra-dimensional entity called Dormammu in check for centuries. Odin is the All-father and one of the greatest warriors the Universe has to offer. With the Odin Force at his command, there is no way The Mad Titan could have stopped this fellow from ripping his heart out. All three are dead. Last but not the least; even S.H.I.E.L.D is out of the picture and the Avengers stand divided now.
Thanos will fight the rookies now!
The Avengers are split. Captain America and the Secret Avengers are stationed in Wakanda. T’Challa is new to the Black Panther mantle. Thor recently lost his home and his hammer. He has just taken the place of his father as the Asgardian King. Spiderman has been in the game far too little to matter. Peter Quill and the Guardians are mostly clueless about everything.
We do not know if Marvel Studios was planning it beforehand or it was just pure luck on their part but as of now, Earth is ripe for an invasion. Enter Thanos.
Avengers Infinity War will hit the theaters worldwide on April 27, 2018. It is directed by Russo brothers i.e Joe and Anthony Russo who are specialists in directing big budget comic book movies. It produced by Marvel President Kevin Feige along with a set of executive producers including chief architect of Marvel comics Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo etc. The screenplay has been written by an amazing duo – Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
The cast is top notch and power packed as it has some of the biggest stars playing marquee roles including Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Pratt (Starlord), Chris Evans (Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Winter soldier), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Reiner (Hawkeye), Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange), Benedict Wong (Wong), Vin Diesel (Groot), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Tom Holland (Spiderman), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlett Witch), Paul Bettany (Vision), Dave Bautista (Drax), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Josh Brolin (Thanos).
The official plot synopsis released by Marvel studios can be read below:
“As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain”.
“Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment”.
“An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe”.
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