There's no doubt that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has essentially changed the world of Hollywood and movie production. While introducing the concept of serialized storytelling and shared universes, the MCU has consistently raked in tons of money at the box office, as well as positive reactions from critics. But the MCU is not without its faults, and the most common criticism for the franchise is related to its villain problem. While MCU installments might be exciting moments of growth for the heroes, the villains are typically tertiary figures that don't serve much of a purpose beyond their one appearance.
Well it turns out that the higher ups at Marvel are cognizant of this opinion, and they may be trying to change things up in a positive way through future Marvel films. Marvel President Kevin Feige actually addressed the villain problem when CinemaBlend's own Sean O'Connell was at a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set visit. He said,
We've been criticized... if a big criticism of ours is that we focus on the heroes more than the villains, I think that's probably true. I don't think it will always be true, and I think some of you spoke to Chris [Markus] and Steve [McFeely] at the Civil War junket. ... And they talked about, in appropriately oblique terms, Thanos. Thanos in Infinity War is -- in a movie that has a lot of characters, you could almost go so far as to say he is the main character, and that's a bit of a departure from what we've done before. But that was appropriate for a movie called Infinity War.
Now this is intriguing. Rather than playing a similar role to past villains, it looks like Josh Brolin will have a more crucial role to Avengers: Infinity War than we thought. And it sounds awesome.
We've known for quite some time now that No Country For Old Men actor Josh Brolin would be taking on the role of Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His approach has been teased in a few MCU films, making the anticipation only continue to grow. So it would be extremely disappointing if Thanos showed up in the same basic way his villain predecessors did. Alas, it looks like Thanos may actually be the lead character of Infinity War, which something totally new to the MCU as a whole.
Avengers: Infinity War has a ton of challenges associated with it, mostly the giant catalogue of characters that will somehow be worked into the film. But Kevin Feige's statement actually helps to clarify how they'll all be used. The heroes will likely be separated for the majority of the film, as Thanos' threat gets vey real. But it'll take some doing for the Guardians, what's left of the Avengers, and Captain America's rogue team to somehow unite, during which we'll get to really understand the character of Thanos.
The next installment into the MCU is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which will fly into theaters on May 5th, 2017.
