If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, chances are that you have nice things to say about Thanos. While the Avengers: Endgame character is deplorable and a mass murderer, the character does have his own moral code and the fact that he destroyed the Infinity Stones to take away his temptation to use it again proves that. Still, even his most loyal defenders will have a hard time claiming that the Mad Titan was interesting before Avengers: Infinity War.
(Thanos in the MCU by the way, not the comics. He's always been interesting there).
Well, it turns out that one of his least-exciting appearances was almost home to one of his bigger roles. According to Marvel's former head of visual effects, Charlie Wen, there were plans to have Thanos play a bigger part in Guardians of the Galaxy. Apparently, the film almost had moments where we saw him with his daughters ala Endgame but that would have taken away screen time from Ronan the Accuser.
Here is what Wen told Looper:
"We would have seen some of the relationship [and] tensions play out between him and his kids. Ronan's role would have decreased, with Thanos taking on more. We cut Thanos out of Guardians completely in order to have a slower reveal of him. It wasn't until right before the shoot that I was told that Thanos would have a role in the film, so designing him and his throne was pretty rushed."
Fans can agree that Guardians of the Galaxy is Thanos' second-least interesting appearance, the first being his mid-credit sequence in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thankfully, Infinity War made the character much more interesting and we can all call him one of the MCU's best villains.
Avengers: Endgame is still showing in theaters. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 starts shooting in 2020.
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