Why Adam Warlock (And A Giant Snake) Aren’t In ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
In case you had forgotten, there are76 charactersjam-packed into the upcoming Marvel Studios movie,Avengers: Infinity War. But there’s one familiar Marvel Comics character that you were never going to see inInfinity War:Adam Warlock.
An Adam Warlock appearance was never in the cards for screenwritersChristopher MarkusandStephen McFeely, despite the pivotal role the cosmic character plays in theInfinity Gauntletcomics. And knowing how many characters Markus and McFeely had to give screentime, that’s no surprise. But what is surprising is that the duo almost introduced a giant snake instead.
In the comics, Adam Warlock is an artificially created cosmic being who is designed to be the perfect human. Charged with guarding the Soul Gem (or Soul Stone, if you want to get MCU technical about it), Adam Warlock leads the fight against Thanos in theInfinity Gauntletcomic book crossover event — the basis for theInfinity Warmovie.
In an interview withET Online, Markus and McFeely explained that including Adam Warlock in the movie would been “a massive backbend” in order to introduce this pivotal character that no one had ever heard of before. Markus said:
“We didn’t introduce Adam Warlock, because it’s a massive backbend and you practically have to make an Adam Warlock movie to introduce him. He just can’t walk onscreen. So, there was a brief moment where we were like, Ehhh…, and then we were like– [He points to the movie’s poster.] We have that many characters already! And then there were others we couldn’t use. Like, Silver Surfer would have been useful, but we can’t touch him. Currently.”
At 2 hours and 40 minutes,Avengers: Infinity Waris already pushing the limits of how many characters and storylines audiences can handle. Add one more in there, and they’ll just go insane. Though I hear that “insane” is what the entire plot ofInfinity Warfeels like —in a good way.
But hey, why not add to the insanity with agiant snake? That is apparently a very real idea that Markus and McFeely had when they ran into writer’s block. “We were sort of running on empty and we were like, ‘Snake? Big snake? Let’s try big snake.’ And then everyone went insane,” Markus said.
Ultimately, the giant snake was cut (sorry to all you reptile fans), though Adam Warlock could see a future in the MCU.Guardians of the Galaxydirector James Gunn haspreviously teasedthat Adam Warlock “will have a future in the MCU,” and an intriguingpost-credits scene inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2may have just hinted at his introduction. Unfortunately, the giant snake probably has less of a bright future.
