Michael B. Jordan Says Killmonger Could Have Taken Out Thanos & He's Not Wrong
It's been so long since the Thanos snap heard round the Marvelverse, Avengers: Infinity War is now out on DVD, with the Blu-ray to follow in a couple of weeks. As fans take home the film to watch obsessively until Avengers 4 comes out, some of the actors not included in the movie are jumping in to express their opinions on how Thanos won the fight. For instance, Michael B. Jordan, who starred as the villain in Black Panther, says Killmonger could have taken out Thanos, had his character survived to meet him. He's not wrong either.
Speaking last weekend at the Television Critics Association's summer tour, Jordan told the A.V. Club his character, Erik "Killmonger" Stevens would have done better against Thanos than the Avengers did.
I think the one thing about Killmonger is he really plans his attacks, and they’re well thought out. So if he ever stepped in a situation with Thanos, he would feel confident that he had the upper hand — at the very least, he would know he had a shot. So I mean, we already know that Erik’s willing to sacrifice himself for a greater good, so I don’t think he’s ever fearful of losing his life. So I think if he ever stepped in front of Thanos, he’d already have a plan for taking him down.
Jordan is wrong in one sense. The Avengers and the Guardians both had a variety of plans they put into action, some better thought out than others. Killmonger's plan might have melted in the face of multiple Infinity Stones, much like everyone else's did. But Jordan did hit on one thing setting his character apart from the rest of the Avengers: The willingness to die and to kill for the great good.
The reason the Avengers lost was their unwillingness to sacrifice. Not themselves, each character, in turn, seemed to step up and say "I will die for this if need be." The problem was the collective group around them each time shouted them down. From the original cast of Stark, Rogers, Thor, Banner and Black Widow to the newcomers Strange, T'Challa, and the motley group of Guardians, no one was willing to see the people they loved die
Thanos, on the other hand, sacrifices the only person in the entire universe he cares for to carry out his mission. His willingness to lose the only person in the Galaxy he loved (even if it was an abusive and terrible sort of love) was why he won.
Killmonger has no such hang-ups. He doesn't care about Wakanda's survival, or T'Challa's. What does he care for Tony Stark or Dr. Strange or some weird robot who's engaged to marry a mutant who wears a red leather trench coat in the middle of the summer heat? They can all die for all he cares, and he would happily sacrifice them to save humanity.
That's the attitude needed to take down Thanos. If only someone would step up to the plate. Avengers 4: No There's Still No Title arrives in theaters on May 3, 2019.
