Avengers: Infinity War originally featured a 45-minute sequence detailing how Thanos (Josh Brolin) came to possess the Power Stone.
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Comic book writer-artist Jim Starlin, who co-created Thanos with Mike Friedrich, revealed the Power Stone-centric subplot’s existence in an interview with the Near Mint Condition YouTube channel. “[A]bout a month before the movie came out, I got an email or something from [Infinity War co-director] Joe [Russo] saying, ‘The 45 minutes of Thanos that we had at the beginning of Infinity War, we had it cut,'” Starlin recalled. “There was a whole sequence of him getting the first gem and they had to cut that out. They shot it, but they never wanted to spend the money on the effects, and they didn’t want the movie to be as long as [Infinity War sequel Avengers: Endgame] was. They didn’t realize it was going to be quite the hit it was.”
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Thanos’ quest for the Power Stone wasn’t the only material trimmed from the final cut of Avengers: Infinity War. The 2018 Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster was also originally slated to include an appearance by the Hulk during its climactic battle, however, directors Joe and Anthony Russo ultimately decided to axe these scenes. “Hulk was supposed to come busting out of the Hulkbuster [armor] at the end and we shot that,” Bruce Banner/The Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo explained in a recent interview. “We shot it four times and it wasn’t working, and we realized — well, [directors the Russo Brothers] realized — that we couldn’t have Hulk save the day again.”
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The Russo Brothers Discuss “Nerfing” Hulk
This creative choice, coupled with the Hulk’s perceived lack of impact in the finale of Avengers: Infinity War‘s direct follow-up, Avengers: Endgame, led some fans to accuse the Russos of “nerfing” the character. The filmmaking siblings recently acknowledged there was some truth to these claims, admitting that they “didn’t know what to do” with a superhero as powerful as the Hulk. At the same time, the Russos apparently don’t regret their decision to scale back the Hulk’s awesome abilities, with Joe Russo quipping that the Jade Giant “deserved it.”
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Even in their depowered state, Bruce Banner and his green-skinned alter-ego both managed to escape Avengers: Infinity War alive. The same can’t be said for many of their crime-fighting colleagues, including Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. Despite the emotional weight of these deaths, Olsen previously revealed that she and co-stars Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier) and Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa/Black Panther) only found out their characters were being bumped off on the day these scenes were filmed.
