Avengers: Infinity War saw Thanos wiping out half of all life in the universe with the snap of his fingers, with various heroes turning into dust – but why exactly did they disappear like that instead of dying? The Marvel Cinematic Universe reached its peak with Avengers: Infinity War, which brought together all the current superheroes to stop Thanos from collecting all the Infinity Stones, and Avengers: Endgame, where the surviving heroes reversed the snap and defeated the Mad Titan once and for all.

The MCU’s first wave of films, collectively known as the Infinity saga, came to an end with Spider-Man: Far From Home, which offered a look at the world post-Iron Man and post-Thanos snap. Although a couple of years passed since the snap that turned half the universe into dust, the consequences of this could still be felt, and they will surely continue to have an impact in upcoming films. The audience witnessed the disappearance of fan-favorite heroes like Bucky Barnes, Black Panther, Groot, and Spider-Man, whose “death” was the most emotional of all, but why did they all turn to dust, instead of dying (like Vision)?

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Those who vanished as a result of Thanos’ snap didn’t die, as explained by the Ancient One in a deleted scene from Avengers: Endgame. What Thanos did was more like “willing people out of existence” rather than killing them, which is why it was possible for them to return, but Black Widow and Vision couldn’t be brought back as they truly died prior to the snap. It’s also because of this that their bodies didn’t just drop to the ground and stayed there, and the creative team behind Infinity War had to come up with a way to represent this idea on the big screen.

Avengers Infinity War Spider-Man Snap

Speaking to Rotten Tomatoes (via CBR), directors Anthony and Joe Russo explained how they decided to have the victims of the snap turn to dust. Joe Russo shared that they thought about the “elemental aspect of your body and what happens to it”, so the vanishing was a way of “accelerating the decomposing process”. In an interview with Inverse, VFX supervisor Dan DeLeeuw, revealed that the Power Stone was the one that made it all possible, saying that particular stone “was blipping them out of existence”. He went on to explain that they had concept art combining different ideas, but in the end, it all came down to “body turns to ash”, and so they “peeled away all those layers and focused on that one [Power Stone]” and how quickly it would “consume someone”.

Turning the heroes to dust also added to the drama of the scene, as they didn’t vanish right away nor at the same time, which is why the surviving ones saw their friends and family disappear right in front of them. The way the bodies turned to ashes was also carefully planned to add more drama to each fallen heroes’ final moments – for example, Groot was reaching out to Rocket, but as legs and arms vanished first, Rocket could never hold his hand. The way the heroes vanished in Avengers: Infinity War wasn’t just made that way to make the audience cry – there’s a lot more to it, both in-universe and behind the scenes.

Next: Infinity War's Biggest Question Is What Endgame DIDN'T Show

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