We were literally this close to seeing Thanos answer to the Living Tribunal in Avengers: Infinity War. On Friday, Christopher Markus and Scott McFeely sat down in Hall H at SDCC 2019 to talk about writing Avengers: Endgame, and they gave fans a glimpse of the cut scene that could have been.
According to CBR’s live-blog of the panel, the writers originally planned to have Dr. Strange blow Thanos’ mind so hard he would have landed in front of the Living Tribunal, who would have judged him for all the crimes he’d committed against the universe.
“We didn’t lose it. We took it out!” Markus said during the panel, according to CBR. “It was partly inspired by Kevin Fiege… he came in to the conference room in Atlanta, where we were trapped for years, and he had brought a bunch of comics panels with him… we were pretty far down the road… and he wanted to make sure we didn’t lose the psychedelic nature of the Starlin universe… and so we stuck the Living Tribunal in the movie… So, as Thanos and Dr. Strange came to blows, Doctor Strange blew Thanos’ mind and send him through the mind-scape.”
McFeely added that this would have been “not unlike” what happened in Doctor Strange with the Ancient One and Stephen Strange, according to CBR: “In the end, he would have been dumped in front of the Living Tribunal, who judged him guilty.”
According to Hypable’s live-blog, the writers ultimately decided to cut it because, cool as it was, it would have removed the threat from Thanos.
Damn. This would have been a huge game-changer! What do you think about the writers’ decision to leave out the Living Tribunal?
