Going back to Thanos, the MCU has received tons of critical praise but the one thing franchise has been dinged on is that the villains are just not as impressive as Loki, over and over. That’s something you guys are aware of, so in trying to create “The Big Bad” of this franchise, I’m curious, how are you navigating that?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Well part of it is motivation, where if you have a villain who just wants to kill somebody or just wants to take over the world because it seems like a fun thing to do, or has been paid by the Russians to take over the world…run for President to take over the world … That guy isn’t very interesting. He’s pathetic but, we take this from [Jim] Starlin. Thanos is an amoral philosopher. He’s not the Devil – although he does sometimes have the Devil standing next to him. We wanted that all the way through. To have a villain with understandable motivations and emotions. Thanos has family. Thanos has 2 daughters that we know of. Thanos has 8 million back stories in the comics but they’re all kind of sad.
Chris, can you clarify what you were saying about Devil?
CHRISTOPHER MARKUS: Oh, Mephisto in the comics. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of Mephisto. He’s often seen in hell, but he’s not the evil. He’s something more elemental, more primal.