An 'Avengers: Infinity War' Extended Cut May Be Coming & It'll Be All About Thanos

Everyone who left Avengers: Infinity War still wanting to know a bit more about the big purple alien at the center of the movie may be about to get their wish. Reportedly, Marvel is recutting Infinity War with a ton of extra footage, all focused on better explaining Thanos' backstory. So when can we expect to see this Avengers: Infinity War extended cut with Thanos' backstory? Hopefully it will be released pretty soon.

The news about this extended edition of Avengers: Infinity War comes from Thanos' comic-book creator Jim Starlin. In an interview with Collider, Starlin revealed that the original cut of Avengers: Infinity War was about 30 minutes longer, which would have set its run-time to a hefty three hours. In order to cut the movie down to a more palatable two and a half hours, Starlin says that the Infinity War team told him they were going to cut a bunch of scenes explaining Thanos' backstory and more about his motivation to destroy half of life in the universe. In the final version of the film, a lot of Thanos is still present, but Starlin does say that the original cut had much more.

There is still hope for Marvel fans who are dying to see this extra 30 minutes of Thanos story that was cut from Avengers: Infinity War, though! According to Jim Starlin, Marvel is working on a new version of Infinity War that will include the cut 30 minutes. The details seem a bit shaky when it comes to exactly how or when this extended version of the movie will be released, but we do know that the special release will include much more focus on Thanos' early life and possibly even relationships from the comics that have not yet been seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The speculation is that Marvel will release this extended cut on DVD and Blu-ray shortly after the theatrical cut's Blu-ray release (which is set for Aug. 14.). This could also be a fun, bonus way for Marvel to set up next summer's Avengers 4, which will be a continuation of Infinity War and see Thanos return.

Check out Collider reporter Jon Schnepp detailing his discussion with Jim Starlin about the extra Thanos footage below:

It is unclear exactly what this extra 30 minutes of Thanos story could focus on, but Jon Schnepp does mention Thanos' childhood briefly in the video. Most likely, a big chunk of this cut footage is a flashback to Thanos' upbringing, which is a major focus of his story in the Marvel comics. Both of Thanos' parents were Eternals, but Thanos carried a gene that made him look like a destructive Deviant, leading to his own mother trying to kill him after his birth.

Thanos was a ardent pacifist growing up, and did not interact with others. He soon became obsessed with nihilism and death, an ideology that culminated in actually falling in love with the physical embodiment of death, known as Mistress Death. His love affair with Mistress Death is what drives Thanos to enhance his powers and kill without remorse.

It sounds like this could be part of the story about Thanos that was cut from Avengers: Infinity War — or at least, parts of it. There is definitely a chance that Marvel had planned to introduce Mistress Death into the movie since she is so closely tied to Thanos' character, but more likely, the cut 30 minutes was probably just an extended look at Thanos' isolated (and honestly kind of emo) childhood and teenage years on Titan. Hopefully we will be able to see for ourselves if this extended cut gets released later this year.