Josh Brolin‘s Thanos was inevitable. Actor and stuntman Damion Poitier played the Mad Titan in a mid-credits scene in 2012’s The Avengers, which revealed Thanos to be the big bad behind Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) invasion of New York. Thanos made another cameo in the James Gunn-directed Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014 — appearing before Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and tasking the Kree with acquire the Orb, one of six powerful Infinity Stones — with Brolin portraying the cosmic villain for just one scene.
The Avengers writer-director Joss Whedon conceived of the idea to introduce the Death-obsessed Thanos as the string-pulling mastermind behind Loki and the Chitauri, ultimately setting up Brolin’s purple-skinned alien as the overarching villain in the Infinity Saga. But it was originally little beyond a cameo.
“That was supposed to be a cameo when it was first brought to me,” Brolin told Happy Sad Confused in an interview pegged to new movie Weapons. “I was doing the Everest movie in London, and [Marvel] brought me this huge [character] bible. They were like, ‘It’s this little thing and [Thanos] is going to be in it for 10 minutes.’ And then they changed it, and it turned into this whole thing.”
Although Whedon had Thanos get his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet in another mid-credits scene in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, the filmmaker never intended to have Thanos as the villain of his Avengers movies. He handed Thanos off to Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who had the unenviable task of paying off the first decade of MCU storytelling with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The two movies pit Earth’s mightiest heroes against Thanos after he acquired all six Infinity Stones and used their cosmic power to erase half of all life in the universe.
“I’ve said it, Deadpool 2, I’m glad it was one experience,” Brolin added of his second Marvel role as the time-traveling Cable in the Ryan Reynolds-fronted Deadpool sequel. “The Thanos thing, if they called me in London right now and said ‘let’s do this,’ I’d be like, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow.’”
Following Thanos’ double deaths in 2019’s Endgame, Brolin reprised the role in episodes of Marvel Animation’s What If…?, which presented alternate-universe versions of his since snapped character. Asked if he’ll reunite with the Russos and two-time Avengers co-star Robert Downey Jr. in Avengers: Doomsday, which has cast the former Iron Man actor as villain Doctor Doom, Brolin said he has complete confidence they’re “going to come up with something really fun.”
“I mean, who knows? Who knows?” Brolin continued. “That was a ten-year building kind of thing; that was its own kind of book-ended deal. And I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting. I think they do that very, very well.”
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