Thanos is the big villain in Avengers: Infinity War. He was first seen in the end credits tag of The Avengers. Since then he’s been most central to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Zoe Saldana plays Gamora, one of the Guardians and one of Thanos’s adopted daughters. We already know from the Guardians movies that Thanos wasn’t a great father, so expect Gamora and the Guardians to help the Avengers fight him.
“That thread involves the relation between parent and child,” Saldana said. “Besides these kinds of movies carrying so much action, entertainment and visual effects that really cater to all of our senses, we wouldn’t be what we are in the Marvel universe if it wasn’t for those emotional beats that all of these interrelationships carry.”
Gamora’s sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) is also in Avengers: Infinity War. She also has a complicated relationship with their dad.
“We have so much fun with the relationship that these daughters have with their father because they finally get an opportunity to address what it was like to have a dad that’s so complicated,” Saldana said.
Avengers: Infinity War is also the first Marvel movie since Black Panther, which opened the superhero world up to the entire country of Wakanda. Saldana was also excited to join all the African characters in representing heroes of color.
“I’m super, super happy to be an American right now, to be in the entertainment industry, to be considered a public figure and to also be given the opportunities by leaders such as our studio heads, when they take on the task of broadening the narrative for our stories,” Saldana said.
Ultimately, Saldana and her colleagues just want to work, but writing characters for them and giving them their own movies allows them to do that.
“When directors, writers and producers understand that change needs to come from within, as public figures we have the responsibility to take the lead in broadening that narrative,” Saldana said. “It just makes someone like me who would be nothing but a positive recipient super happy.”
Saldana is confident that her children will grow up in a world with more opportunities.
“I know that means for our future generations, I have three sons, and nothing is making me happier to know that they are going to inherit an influx of storytelling through media that represents them and makes them feel seen and heard and that their lives and their heritage matters,” Saldana said. “But only through their merits. I’m just really happy about that.”
Avengers: Infinity War opens Friday.