Infinity War Screenwriters On “Marvel Villains Problem”
Despite making millions, and sometimes billions, at the box office. The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies aren’t without their flaws. A recurring one that has happened in both Phase 1, Phase 2, and rumored to be a problem in the first Phase 3 film Civil War, is the villains. By this, fans mean that the antagonists are barely fleshed out, all act the same way at times, and usually die by the end of the film. The only true worthy exception is Loki, who is alive and is beloved by most MCU fans.
The screenwriters for Captain America: Civil War and the upcoming Infinity War sat down with Joblo and discussed this and how it’s not what fans think:
“I get the criticism, but the early phases were all origin stories. It tends to create a similar villain,” said Stephen McFeely, one half of the writing team with Christopher Markus. That points to specific criticism made here at Comicbook, where we looked at the prevalence of doppelgänger villains, enemies with virtually identical power sets (see: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Ant-Man, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, and non-Marvels like The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and many, many more). “When it is no longer an origin story, I think you might have a little bit more freedom to create different villains. I’m sensitive to the problem. I get it,” McFeely continued. “But it wasn’t the Robert Redford story, it was Captain America: Winter Soldier. It wasn’t the Red Skull’s journey, it was the journey of one guy going from ninety pound weakling to American hero and then going into the ice. So in a 120-minute movie it is difficult, and Thanos will possibly change that, but you want time spent.”
Both writers are excited about getting to go more in-depth with Thanos, though.
“We can reveal nothing, but we are equally fascinated; legitimately, we are fascinated by Thanos,” Markus said. “There are a lot of reasons we took the job but one of them was now, we get to take the biggest villain marvel has ever had and try to do him justice,” added McFeely. They teased they’ll be “willing to pull from anything Thanos is in” as far as comicbook source material goes, as well.