At this stage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is arguably no character more influential than Thanos. First played by Josh Brolin in Guardians of the Galaxy, the giant purple alien’s hunt for all of the Infinity Stones has had an effect on everything we’ve seen from the franchise so far, and he will serve as the central villain in the Phase Three two-part capstone movie The Avengers: Infinity War. But it won’t be until later this month that Brolin and folks at Marvel Studios really diving into everything Thanos-related.
I had the fantastic opportunity yesterday to sit down with Josh Brolin at the Los Angeles press day for the new Coen brothers film Hail, Caesar!, and it was towards the end of the interview that we started discussing his future as the Mad Titan. The actor admitted that to this point he really doesn’t know too much about what Marvel has in store for Thanos going forward, but it won’t be long until everything is laid out and explained. Said Brolin,
So Kevin [Feige], Louis D’Esposito – who I’ve known for a long time, since he was a First AD that I worked with on Hollow Man with Verhoeven – and then the brothers… the Russo brothers. I get together with them next week, maybe the week after, and we’re going through the whole thing. And I don’t know anything at this point. I know a little, but, honestly, very little.
Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe first met Thanos in the first post-credits scene of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, revealed as the puppeteer behind Loki and the Chitauri attack on Earth. Since then, we’ve seen him square off with Ronan The Accuser during his attempts to acquire The Power Stone, and in the button for The Avengers: Age of Ultron we watched as he took out his Infinity Gauntlet, preparing to start filling its empty slots.
At this point, it’s unclear exactly when we will be seeing Thanos appear on the big screen again – and part of that comes from the fact that he could show up in multiple places or not until The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 in 2018. At this point it doesn’t look like he will be popping up in Captain America: Civil War, but it would not be shocking in the slightest to see him poke his head into either Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or Thor: Ragnarok. Even if he doesn’t wind up having a lead antagonist role in one of the Phase Three movies, or even a supporting part, we can hope that at the very least Marvel will help us keep tabs on him through more post-credit sequences.
When do you think Thanos will be showing up next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Hit the comments with your thoughts, and stay tuned for more from my interview with Josh Brolin!
You can check out some of the more exciting superhero trailers in the video below.
