The MCU’s Abandoned Thanos Backstory Made Him A Better Villain, But At What Cost?

While his motivations were fleshed out adequately in Avengers: Infinity War, the MCU’s Thanos originally had a much more complex backstory that was made non-canon. Thanos was first introduced in the MCU in 2012’s The Avengers, initially portrayed as simply a warmongering, genocidal Titan who wished to conquer Earth and assert his will on the cosmos. This was furthered in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and a brief tease in Avengers: Age of Ultron before 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War delved much deeper into what made the so-called Mad Titan tick.