Thanos’ Creator Jim Starlin On How The Character Was Handled In The MCU

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

Jim Starlin, former artist and writer for Marvel and the original creator of Thanos spoke with Polygon about the character’s portrayal in the MCU.

On the character’s depiction: “I’ve worked with movie scripts before and I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone who thinks they’re going to get a carbon copy of what they put down on paper is just being foolish. These movie production companies are spending millions and millions of dollars and they’re going to work it around to their universe, which is different than the comic book universe. So overall, no, I was very happy with what they’d done with Thanos.

Actually, there were a couple of things that they did that I thought were a really great ideas that I wish I had done in the comics, such as him taking off the armor when he gets a couple of the Gems —Stones, they call it — and doesn’t need the armor anymore. It just never struck me as an idea at the time, and I thought, Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. I know a lot of people were upset by that, but he shows up in the armor again in [Avengers: Endgame]. So it all balanced out nicely.

My one gripe, and it’s a minor gripe, is I miss his yellow eyes that turned red when he got angry, but I see why they did it; it gives [Thanos’ actor Josh] Brolin a better chance to emote with the pupils and all that. The blue I think probably works better on film than the yellow eyes and the red flair would have been too contrasty.

But you know, I think they really stayed with the spirit of the character if not the exact letter of it. And I think Josh Brolin, [writers Stephen McFeely, Christopher Marcus,] and the Russos did a great job on putting his little story together. I think of it as like, ‘How would Arthur Conan Doyle feel if he saw all the different movie versions of Sherlock Holmes?’ He wouldn’t recognize it at certain points. You have to come into the game realizing that there are going to be changes.”

The removal of death from Thanos’ backstory and motivation: “Well, the reason they eliminated Mistress Death from the storyline is that Marvel Studios feels that it’s a little bit too early to be adding these abstract entities into the mix. Which is, I think, something they’re going to change once they’ve got a couple of Doctor Strange movies more out of the way.

His movie motivation is actually right out of the comics, in issue 34 of Silver Surfer; that was going to be my route that I was going to take with him in Infinity Gauntlet, but I quickly realized that I was going to be working myself into a corner, and I wanted to bring Mistress Death into it because she’d been an aspect of the character before. So I switched that around and made it so it was just a scam. So, [his MCU motivation is] true to the spirit of the character and the storyline, if not exactly right on the mark. Things change and you go with the flow and enjoy the ride while you can.”