Infinity War: Why None Of The Original Avengers Died In Thanos' Snap

Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped out half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War, but all six of the original Avengers survived - why? In 2018, Marvel Studios began the culmination of the Infinity Saga with the Joe and Anthony Russo movie properly introducing the Mad Titan to the MCU. By the end of the film, the villain had won - successfully wiping half of life in the universe including some heroes, but interestingly, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) all lived.

The six founding MCU characters, alongside several independent-operating heroes, spent the five years following Thanos' Decimation at the end of Infinity War in different ways. Tony Stark checked out of his superhero role and lived a quiet family life with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Morgan. Racked with guilt regarding his failure to stop the Mad Titan, Thor suffered depression as he retreated in New Asgard. Meanwhile, Captain America and Black Widow remained active on duty - the former partaking in therapy sessions and the former overseeing their remaining allies. Bruce Banner worked on becoming Smart Hulk; and finally, Hawkeye assumed his new persona as Ronin to deal with the death of his family.

Marvel Studios saving the six original Avengers from Thanos' snap in Infinity War was clearly a set-up for their eventual role in Avengers: Endgame. For the most part, the 2018 blockbuster kept the heroes apart with Iron Man going to space, Captain America, Black Widow, and Banner staying on Earth, Thor going to Nidavellir for the Stormbreaker, and Hawkeye sitting the whole thing out as he's under house arrest. With Endgame poised to be the final film in the Infinity Saga, the movie was also expected to be the swan song for some of these heroes, which it ultimately was. That said, the Russos, with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, also crafted the story to better sell the idea that the aforementioned heroes would survive the decimation.

While Thanos committed genocide via the snap at the end of Infinity War, the Mad Titan wasn't out to murder anyone. Throughout his quest for the Infinity Stones, he wasn't intentionally killing people, although he could clearly do that. That's evidenced by his initial encounter with the Guardians of the Galaxy in Knowhere where he only used the Reality Stone to hold off Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) from attacking him. It's the same when he met the Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Spider-Man again in Titan. With three crystals with him, he could've easily killed some of the heroes, but he didn't, as Thanos only killed when he had to, such as to get the Soul Stone or Mind Stone.

Aside from that, Thanos also didn't get much time to battle any of the original Avengers, aside from Hulk at the beginning of the movie and Iron Man on Titan. Due to a massive cast, not to mention a lot of story points to tackle, the filmmakers had to craft a fast-paced story in order to cover everything they needed to. To deal with its big cast, Infinity War broke the characters down to smaller groups and since Thanos had to personally collect the Infinity Stones one-by-one, each team had to wait for their time to face the Mad Titan. This resulted in shorter fights, especially by the time Thanos made it to Wakanda. He only had brief encounters with Captain America, Black Widow, and Thor at the end.

Since Thanos' snap is supposedly random, Marvel Studios is able to easily get away with the explanation that the six Avengers were simply lucky to be spared. Of course, fans know that there's a narrative motivation in keeping them all alive past Avengers: Infinity War and into Endgame. As cited, however, the story also effectively justifies their survival.

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