“He’s from a planet called Titan,” Joe Russo told The Times of India. “Many years prior to the film his planet was experiencing a cataclysmic shift. They were running out of resources, and they were overpopulated. Thanos made a recommendation that they exterminate half the population randomly in order to save the rest of the population. Of course, the Titans rejected his notion, branded him a mad man, exiled him, and the planet ended up dying. So he has taken it upon himself to go planet-by-planet throughout the universe and wipe out half of the population of each planet as a way to correct the planet and bring it back into balance.”

If this new motivation for Thanos sounds just a little familiar, it should; not only is the idea of a scientist realizing that his planet was in danger but being ignored by his peers, resulting in the death of said planet literally the story of Superman’s father Jor-El — did Thanos send any kids off into space before Titan died, I wonder? — but the notion of culling a percentage of the world’s population in order to avoid catastrophe is the plot of Richmond Valentine, the villain played by Samuel L. Jackson in 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Avengers: Infinity War will be in theaters April 27. In the meantime, perhaps refresher views of Man of Steel and Kingsman: The Secret Service are in order, just in case.