Marvel's Eternals explains why the MCU dropped Thanos' MCU origin story. Back in 2018, lovers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were excited to learn Thanos' MCU origin story would be told in Barry Lyga's origin novel Thanos: Titan Consumed. Lyga had worked closely with Marvel Studios while writing the story, and he was told all about the MCU's version of the Mad Titan ahead of the release of Avengers: Infinity War. In an interview with io9, Lyga described the freedom he'd had when putting together the story. "In some areas, I was given great latitude and a free hand," Lyga explained, "while in others I had to tip-toe very carefully through the MCU."

Both Lyga and his publisher, Little, Brown and Company, clearly believed Thanos: Titan Consumed was canon, and it was announced as such. Marvel immediately contacted them, however, asking them to clarify that "the book has no canonical ties to the MCU." The logical conclusion was that something had changed at Marvel regarding Thanos' status as a potential Eternal; that the studio had begun to work on plans for a future project that they feared would contradict Thanos: Titan Consumed, and thus the easiest way to handle this was to simply hand-wave Lyga's book away as non-canon.

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It's now clear that the issue came from Eternals. In the comics, the Eternals are an evolutionary offshoot of humanity who have settled on the planet Titan, and Thanos himself was born there; Thanos: Titan Consumed borrows on the idea Thanos is an Eternal, although it doesn't explicitly confirm it. Still, the inhabitants of Titan are described as colonists, and their capital is known as "Eternal City," which seems indicative. There are nods towards the Deviants, as well; in the comics, Thanos was an Eternal born with the Deviant gene, and Thanos: Titan Consumed suggests he bears the genes of the colonists' greatest predators.

Thanos in his last battle in Avenger Endgame.

This doesn't match up with Eternals, however. The Eternals' origin story has changed for the MCU, and now they are a race of ancient aliens who originate from the planet Olympia. What's more, their vessel the Domo looks nothing like the technology seen on Titan, inspired instead by sacred geometry and religious symbolism, with a texture designed to look like space dust. Even the Deviants are more monstrous, reinvented as another alien race who absorb the predatory aspects of creatures they kill. The idea of Thanos as an Eternal who possesses a Deviant gene just wouldn't work.

Rumors of the Eternals project had just begun to circulate when Barry Lyga's Thanos novel was announced. Eternals would have only been in its earliest stages, but already Marvel would have known enough to sense it would potentially clash with Barry Lyga's story. And thus they decided to simply declare Thanos: Titan Consumed non-canon, irrespective of the quality of the Avengers: Infinity War tie-in.

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