Home Entertainment SPOILER WARNING! Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige discuss the origins of End Credit Scene from The Avengers!

SPOILER WARNING! Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige discuss the origins of End Credit Scene from The Avengers!

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So judging by the fact that thus far The Avengers has taken ALL DA MONEYZ, I’m guessing that most of you have already seen it at least once. And if you were a comic book geek like me, then chances are that if you hadn’t soiled yourself enough due to how amazing the movie was, the moment that end credits scene rolled around you pretty much had another titanic accident in your pants.

If you haven’t seen the movie, and have no idea what the voided bowels I am talking about, then I suggest you STOP READING RIGHT NOW! BECAUSE IT’S ALL SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP!

Right, so this brown-pants inducing moment was a result of none other than one of Marvel’s biggest cosmic supervillains, Thanos, showing up. Lover of Death (Literally – Notice the capital D indicating the living personification of the death in the Marvel Universe), wielder of the reality warping Infinity Gauntlet, and one of the most physically powerful and intelligent foes the Avengers, hell, the entire Marvel universe ever faced, Thanos is a huge step up in the stakes.

There was a massive hint as to his involvement back in Thor already, where – in a blink and you miss it scene – the Infinity Gauntlet could be seen in Odin’s vault. But while most fanboys were foaming at the mouth at the prospect of the purple faced Titan making an appearance, his cosmic origins – born on the Saturnian moon, Titan, he was one of the rare mutant offspring of the immensely powerful Eternals race – always seemed to be just a little bit too far off the map of the then current Marvel universe. The Avengers changed all that, by giving us that cosmic and extra-terrestrial foot in the door, with the introduction of the alien realms.

Speaking to Slashfilm, Marvel Studios Executive Kevin Feige explained how they came up with the idea of adding such a massive character to the rapidly expanding Marvel movie mythos:

/Film: Thanos at the end. At what point did you know that you wanted to do that? Who shot that? How was that put together?

Kevin Feige: Joss. Joss, Joss, and Joss.

/Film: It was his idea?

Kevin Feige: Yeah.

/Film: And you let him do it because you said you wanted it to be “cosmic?”

Kevin Feige: I wanted to get cosmic and did with THOR and told him that we wanted it to be aliens, that a portal opens in New York and aliens poor out, because the cosmic cube opened a portal. Who they were, what they were, and how they interacted was all Joss and Joss is a huge fan of Thanos.

/Film: Okay, and you sort of came to this is a character that fans would appreciate and like?

Kevin Feige: All of our tags are sort of like that. If you don’t know who Nick Fury is, that’s just Sam Jackson in an eye mask at the end and somebody is going to tell you who it is. If you don’t know what Mjolnir is, that’s a hammer in a crater, “What does that mean? What’s the big deal?”

You know, the THOR tag frankly is the one that is kind of most clear to a new audience, because “What’s that?” “It’s the cosmic cube. Oh, Loki is still alive.” Most of them are… and my first experience with this was X MEN 2, which we liked the idea of hinting to the Phoenix and Bryan [Singer] did in that little flash. I could see it as we always do opening weekends, sneak into the theaters and watch it play, you could see like one out of 150 or 200 fans went “Oh my God! That’s the…” And they go “What? It’s a light underwater? What is that?” But all you need is 5% of the audience to be vocal enough that it starts to spread and Nick Fury was the same way. That really spread.

So I think Thanos will be the same way. During the premiere last night there were two guys behind me, I don’t know who they were, when Thanos turned around they went “Oh my God, it’s that… What’s his name? I can’t remember his name, but he’s that… Oh my God.” So you know clearly in the way it’s presented, it’s somebody important, so “ask somebody.” But don’t spoil that.

Slashfilm then went on to speak the man, Joss Whedon, himself to find out his take on the matter.

/Film: The last thing is the Thanos tag. Can you talk a little bit about that? Kevin said it was your idea. Why decide on Thanos? Why now?

Joss Whedon: He for me is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He’s the great grand daddy of the badasses and he’s in love with death and I just think that’s so cute.
For me, the greatest Avengers was THE AVENGERS annual that Jim Starlin did followed by THE THING 2 in 1 that contained the death of Adam Warlock. Those were some of the most important texts and I think underrated milestones in Marvel history and Thanos is all over that, so somebody had to be in control and had to be behind Loki’s work and I was like “It’s got to be Thanos.”
And they said “Okay” and I’m like “Oh my God!”
Whedon’s geek out moment is completely justified, as including Thanos not only gives the Marvel Movie universe the biggest of big bads to work against, but it also opens the door for another Marvel comic book property which Kevin Feige had hinted at in the past as a possible contender for a feature film: The Guardians of the Galaxy. They’re a super team comprised of most of Marvel’s cosmic based superheroes, who count amongst their ranks one green skinned, knife wielding Drax the Destroyer, who just so happens to have been created through mystical and technological means as a living weapon to kill none other than Thanos himself.
Now do you see why I needed to change my underwear?

Last Updated: May 8, 2012

2 Comments

  1. Justin Hess

    May 8, 2012 at 14:03

    Joss Whedon: He for me is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He’s the great grand daddy of the badasses and he’s in love with death and I just think that’s so cute.
    Lol

    As for the next Avengers film, I hope they bring on Joss again, perhaps not to direct but certainly to do the story. His skill with longform storytelling is incredible and it would be nice to them plotting or sowing the seeds for the plot of Avengers 2 in the next Marvel Films. Just as they did in the the first few, still keeping them relatively self-contained but still hinting at something epic in the works. 

    And when it comes to doing that kind of longterm plotting Joss really is the only person on the planet who could do it. He knows the characters, he knows the world, he clearly understands where he wants it to go. Bring on Joss to handle the plotting building toward Avengers 2 and the plot for that film, the basic story and plot for each of the films leading to that film and Marvel is virtually guaranteed quality product that’ll bring in some nice bank

    Reply

  2. Kyle

    May 8, 2012 at 20:04

    As much as I love comics, especially the Marvel ones, I really only went to watch Chris Hemsworth in 3D… (and Chris Evans)

    Reply

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