Marvel Studios
Warning: This post contains spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War."
- "Avengers: Infinity War" co-director Joe Russo told ComicBook.com that fans "could be equally upset with Thor" over the movie's ending.
- In the movie, Thor has a chance to kill Thanos with an ax, but aims for his chest rather than his head because "he wanted to tell Thanos he got revenge."
- Thor came out of "Infinity War" as a fan favorite, so this revelation might be an unwelcome one.
Chris Hemsworth's Thor has come out of "Avengers: Infinity War" more popular than ever, but the movie's co-director Joe Russo argues that fans would be justified in being upset with him over the movie's sad ending.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, Russo revealed why Thor didn't kill Thanos when he had the chance.
"I would argue that the fan base could be equally upset with Thor, who chose to throw that ax into Thanos chest and not his head," Russo said. "Because he wanted to tell Thanos that he got revenge."
In the movie, after Thanos kills his brother Loki, Thor is on a mission to find a weapon that can kill Thanos. By the end of the movie, he acquires the weapon - a battle-ax forged on the dwarf homeworld - and throws it at Thanos' chest. It only wounds Thanos, though, who snaps his fingers to wipe out half of humanity.
"Had he gone for a kill shot, if that happened, these are choices that characters who are feeling immense pain make and hopefully, the audience can learn to empathize with those characters because they can grow through stories," Russo continued. "Stories can teach us things and that we should try to see every choice from the perspective of the character that made the choice."
After "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Avengers: Infinity War" reinvented the character, Thor has been a fan favorite. A lot of online criticism has instead been targeted at Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, who makes equally bad decisions in "Infinity War" that prevent Thanos from being defeated.
It's also worth remembering that Doctor Strange saw all the possible futures in the movie and in only one was Thanos defeated. Strange makes the decision to give Thanos one of the Infinity Stones after this, so he's obviously playing the long game.