In just under a month and a half, Avengers: Endgame will be bringing Marvel’s Phase 3 to a close, while most likely taking Thanos’ arc to its point of culmination. But once the Mad Titan is out of the picture, the question is raised of who the next big bad of the MCU will be, and in a new theory on Reddit, an answer is suggested that at least gets some points for creativity.
Redditor Jlefrench argues, as many have before, that Thanos’ plan to save the universe by cutting down the population might not make a whole lot of sense. For one thing, there’s the well-worn point that the villain could’ve simply doubled the number of resources. On top of that, it’s observed that killing half of all life, including livestock, would actually cut down on the amount of resources in the universe, which seems directly at odds with Thanos’ stated intentions. The user also makes the case that Titan is completely barren and thrown off its axis in a way that Avengers: Infinity War doesn’t fully explain.
From here, the argument is made that Marvel is secretly prepping us for the arrival of a villain that they’ll soon be acquiring thanks to the Disney/Fox deal: Galactus. To elaborate, since the Fantastic Four antagonist drains planets of their energy, it’s suggested that Thanos was stripping each planet of enough life to make them undesirable to Galactus. In the case of Titan, it’s argued that it was too late, hence its desolate state, and now that Thanos knows that Galactus is out there, he feels “cursed with knowledge” that compels him to make sacrifices.
It’s an interesting idea, but one that comes with a whole load of issues. For example, it’s unclear why Thanos would lie about his motivations for the genocide, and why he wouldn’t simply snap Galactus out of existence. In short, we wouldn’t take this theory too seriously, but we’ll find out what sort of future Avengers: Endgame lays out for the MCU when the film hits theaters on April 26th.