From the moment he was introduced in The Avengers’ mid-credits scene, Thanos was positioned as the overarching antagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga, with the Mad Titan finally coming to the forefront in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. However, we watched Josh Brolin’s take on the character die twice in the latter movie: first Thor beheaded the Thanos who wiped half of all life out of existence with the Infinity Stones, then Tony Stark sacrificed his life to turn an alternate Thanos and his army to dust with an alternate set of the Stones. Now Brolin, who’s about to return to the big screen as a member of Dune: Part Two’s cast, has shared his thoughts on if Thanos could return.
It’s a fair inquiry considering how often dead characters come back to life in superhero stories. And while The Multiverse Saga already has its own overarching antagonist in the form of Kang the Conqueor (though Jonathan Majors is no longer playing him), apparently Brolin has heard rumblings that Thanos might rise again. As he told Comicbook:
You know, I hear kind of like through the grapevine, that they’re gonna bring him back. And there’s the What If…? series and that’s a different kind of Thanos and all that. But I don’t know in the Marvel world whether they’re going to bring him back, but I didn’t know that he was the most killed-off Marvel villain … You learn something new every day.
This makes it sound like a potential Thanos return isn’t something that’s being reserved for an alternate universe scenario being explored in the animated What If… ? series (which Disney+ subscribers can stream), but rather that we might see a “live-action” Thanos back to cause trouble in one of the upcoming Marvel movies. Still, to be clear, even Brolin doesn’t know if this is actually happening or not, though he doesn’t appear opposed to the idea. Along with his demises in the aforementioned Endgame and the various versions of Thanos who’ve kicked the bucket in What If… ?, we also know Earth-838’s Illuminati, seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, killed their Thanos.
I’m not willing to get too excited about possibly seeing Thanos again in the MCU considering my speculation of The Marvels including new scenes with him ended up being completely wrong. Still, if a return like this is in the cards, then the question becomes how will it pulled off. My money’s on it being another Thanos from a different universe who’s pulled into whatever Kang’s cooking up in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and/or Avengers: Secret Wars. The trick with that, however, is to ensure that Thanos isn’t overshadowing Kang, as the latter is still the one who needs to be posing the biggest threat to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes at this stage of the franchise’s lifespan.
Rest assured, if Thanos’ return to the MCU ends up happening, we’ll let you know about it. For now though, check out Josh Brolin reprising Gurney Halleck in Dune: Part Two starting March 1, and head over to Disney+ if you now have a hankering to watch the Marvel movies in order.