Thanos may have ultimately gotten his just desserts from the whole crew in Avengers:
Endgame, but he could have tasted defeat at the hands of just one of Earth's Mightiest
Heroes.
Chatting with ComicBook.com during San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Marvel Studios president Kevin
Feige revealed that he believes an Avenger could have defeated Josh Brolin's Mad Titan
singlehandedly had he not summoned his army to continue fighting in his name.
The hero who would have whooped Thanos' purple butt in a one-on-one battle?
None other than Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, whom Feige said is, quote, "probably
near the upper echelons of power" when it comes to ranking the heroes of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe.
"I contend she would have taken down Thanos if he hadn't called the, uh —" "Oh, she
had him.
"Right, he was done."
Feige isn't the only one who feels Scarlet Witch would have killed Thanos if he hadn't
started blowing up the battlefield in a desperation move.
"Rain fire!"
"But sire!
Our troops!"
"Just do it!"
Avengers: Endgame co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely and co-director Joe Russo are of the
opinion that she was Thanos' greatest adversary on the battlefield, even sharing their thoughts
that the Mad Titan had to effectively cheat to beat her.
As McFeely said during an Endgame commentary track,
"She's really the biggest threat to Thanos on this field."
Joe Russo agreed, saying,
"She is a very powerful character, and he has to in a way, cheat, and sacrifice his
own armies, just to escape her."
Russo also added some more context as to where Wanda's powers come from in the MCU, which
has always been somewhat ambiguous, especially compared to her brother Quicksilver.
As Maria Hill memorably put it in Age of Ultron,
"He's fast and she's weird."
But Joe Russo cleared things up with his Endgame commentary, saying,
"Wanda's powers have a lot to do with her internal life.
And there's a growth to the powers and [a] growth of her internal life and her ability
to harness them, and the emotion and pain caused by Vision's death has caused an acceleration
of that growth."
As you may know, Scarlet Witch came into close contact with Thanos at the tail end of Avengers:
Infinity War, when the intergalactic tyrant was about to extract the Mind Stone from the
forehead of her lover, the Vision - all as a part of his plan to power the Infinity Gauntlet
and wipe out half of the universe's population.
Initially, Scarlet Witch made the difficult choice to pull the Mind Stone out of Vision
herself, at his request, destroying the powerful gem before Thanos could get his hands on it.
She was successful, but Thanos used the Time Stone to undo Scarlet Witch's actions and
snatch the Stone for himself.
With Vision dead and Thanos' Gauntlet ready for snapping, the Mad Titan carried out his
dastardly plan and turned Scarlet Witch and billions of other people into space dust.
Fast forward to the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, when the formerly dusted heroes came
back to life thanks to Hulk and the Stark Gauntlet, powered by Infinity Stones the team
collected from the past.
Scarlet Witch was once again on the side of the living, and her rage over Thanos killing
Vision was fresh in her mind — even though this Thanos, chronologically, hadn't killed
the Vision or even met Wanda yet.
Not that that mattered to her.
"You took everything from me."
"I don't even know who you are."
"You will."
As soon as Scarlet Witch's powers proved too much for Thanos to take, he called in his
airstrike, an assault only diverted by the arrival of Captain Marvel, another hero whose
incredible powers stemmed from contact with an Infinity Stone.
The fact that Scarlet Witch could have taken down Thanos on her own is intriguing, and
though Thanos isn't coming back for the MCU's phase 4 - at least, not as far as we know
- there will be ample opportunities to explore Wanda's powerset.
She'll appear alongside Vision on the upcoming Disney+ [disney plus] series WandaVision,
and will be a starring character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Both projects will give fans a chance to see Scarlet Witch at the top of her game, hopefully
channeling the fire and fury seen in Avengers: Endgame.
If Thanos couldn't handle her, it's hard to guess who will.
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