WARNING: Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War (which came out three full months ago) will definitely be found below.
Much has been made of Marvel Studios’ decision to allow the genocidal Thanos to kill half the universe at the end of Infinity War with a snap of his fingers. This would include all life, meaning not only beloved superheroes but humans, animals, and more. Well, one character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe never got a shot to help foil Thanos’ gathering of infinity stones, and that would be Black Panther antagonist Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, who met his own end before Thanos touched down in Wakanda.
Jordan has apparently been mulling over the situation, at least a little bit, and while speaking with the AV Club during the Television Critics Association press tour over the weekend, he asserted that Killmonger could have done something about Thanos’ plan, at least to some degree:
“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.”
Although there’s been plenty of dissection of Killmonger’s actions and motives, it’s fairly clear that he’s a nuanced type of villain who did inspire some audience empathy, so it’s easy to imagine that, yes, he would have stood against Thanos’ desire to murder half of all life, or perhaps he would act out of self-preservation. Now, whether or not Killmonger had a shot in hell of standing up against Thanos is one matter. Then there’s an entirely different question — could he have stopped Star-Lord’s ultimately devastating screw up that arguably led to Thanos’ victory? Could anyone have done so? Perhaps that’s a discussion for another day.
(Via AV Club)