Why Adam Warlock (And A Giant Snake) Aren't In 'Avengers: Infinity War'

In case you had forgotten, there are 76 characters jam-packed into the upcoming Marvel Studios movie, Avengers: Infinity War. But there's one familiar Marvel Comics character that you were never going to see in Infinity War: Adam Warlock.

An Adam Warlock appearance was never in the cards for screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, despite the pivotal role the cosmic character plays in the Infinity Gauntlet comics. And knowing how many characters Markus and McFeely had to give screentime, that's no surprise. But what is surprising is that the duo almost introduced a giant snake instead.

In the comics, Adam Warlock is an artificially created cosmic being who is designed to be the perfect human. Charged with guarding the Soul Gem (or Soul Stone, if you want to get MCU technical about it), Adam Warlock leads the fight against Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet comic book crossover event — the basis for the Infinity War movie.

In an interview with ET Online, Markus and McFeely explained that including Adam Warlock in the movie would been "a massive backbend" in order to introduce this pivotal character that no one had ever heard of before. Markus said:

"We didn't introduce Adam Warlock, because it's a massive backbend and you practically have to make an Adam Warlock movie to introduce him. He just can't walk onscreen. So, there was a brief moment where we were like, Ehhh..., and then we were like– [He points to the movie's poster.] We have that many characters already! And then there were others we couldn't use. Like, Silver Surfer would have been useful, but we can't touch him. Currently."

At 2 hours and 40 minutes, Avengers: Infinity War is already pushing the limits of how many characters and storylines audiences can handle. Add one more in there, and they'll just go insane. Though I hear that "insane" is what the entire plot of Infinity War feels like — in a good way.

But hey, why not add to the insanity with a giant snake? That is apparently a very real idea that Markus and McFeely had when they ran into writer's block. "We were sort of running on empty and we were like, 'Snake? Big snake? Let's try big snake.' And then everyone went insane," Markus said.

Ultimately, the giant snake was cut (sorry to all you reptile fans), though Adam Warlock could see a future in the MCU. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has previously teased that Adam Warlock "will have a future in the MCU," and an intriguing post-credits scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may have just hinted at his introduction. Unfortunately, the giant snake probably has less of a bright future.

Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27, 2018.

Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet — the evil Thanos. On a mission to collect all six Infinity Stones, Thanos plans to use the artifacts to inflict his twisted will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.