1) Treat Thanos Like A Main Character
It’s no understatement to say that the MCU’s villains have always been the universe’s Achilles heel. Most of them fall victim to limited screentime and a lack of overall character development, leading to typically under-cooked antagonists. There have been multiple well-known villains that have made appearances in previous MCU movies, but Thanos is on a higher level than all the rest. He can’t be watered down and reduced to “just another Marvel villain.” If Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers want to avoid missing the mark on their universe’s most prominent baddie, then they’ve got to give him plentiful opportunities to shine. To do that properly, Thanos needs to serve as both the main antagonist and a primary character.
The Mad Titan has been shoved into the background up until now, so audiences don’t really have any idea what to expect with him. Will he be the Thanos comic book fans remember, or will he be receiving his own MCU interpretation like Ultron did in Age of Ultron? It’s difficult to tell as the character’s only had about 2 minutes of screentime so far across the entirety of the Marvel Studios films.
As such, he remains a mostly unknown quantity, so plenty of time will be needed to break down his personality for audiences. Because of that needed development time, there may need to be several Thanos-focused scenes that take the place of other hero-to-hero moments that are enjoyable, but mostly unnecessary. In addition to that, there needs to be a clear connection between Thanos and the more high-stakes situations within the MCU so it feels like he’s always been the one in control of all things bad and destructive. Without that, Thanos will feel more passive and less like an all-powerful presence.
Most of the time, the MCU’s struggle with villains comes down to their oversimplification of them, as well as an overall lack of character development. If Thanos is going to work (and he can’t work on just name recognition alone), then he needs to be given time to establish himself in the minds of the audience. If Marvel refuses and continues to focus solely on their heroes, then they’ll have effectively wasted their universe’s biggest possible antagonist. This kind of issue may not ruin a Rotten Tomatoes score, but Kevin Feige’s and Marvel Studios’ reputation will surely take a massive hit because of it. In the end, it’ll be up to them to decide whether or not they’re up to the challenges Avengers: Infinity War presents.