Thanos made his live-action debut in The Avengers with Damion Poitier playing the iconic MCU character. After Josh Brolin took over the role, Thanos appeared as the primary antagonist of the Infinity Saga.
Thanos’ MCU appearance was successful and Brolin made quite the spectacle of the role. However, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man sacrificed himself to kill off the villain. Now, with the Kang debacle after Jonathan Majors’ firing from Marvel Studios, the future of the Marvel big bad for Avengers: Secret Wars remained uncertain in many ways. That’s where Thanos’ return speculation gets its prominence.
Will Josh Brolin Return As Thanos?
Nothing is impossible in the MCU, especially in the Multiverse Saga. In comics, Thanos has several variants, one of which is King Thanos from the Thanos solo run & Cosmic Ghost Rider storylines of Marvel Comics. With Jonathan Majors’ Kang being in the shadow of uncertainty following Marvel Studios’ dismissal of the actor, the studio has been in a constant hunt for MCU’s next big bad.
King Thanos’ variant could be a promising addition to Avengers: Secret Wars and it would not be a brand new return of the dead. In the most hyped MCU movie, Deadpool & Wolverine, Hugh Jackman is set to appear despite his death in Logan. But again, it is very unlikely that Thanos would be the primary antagonist rather Josh Brolin’s character could be in the mix of Marvel villains against the mix of heroes. Also, the actor believes in his potential return. “You know, I hear kind of like through the grapevine, that they’re gonna bring him back,” Brolin told ComicBook.com.
“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.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home has already established the prowess of bringing multiversal characters including Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man alongside the iconic villains. Keeping that in mind, it is not an idea from a faraway land for Marvel to milk the cash cow again with Thanos.
Who is King Thanos?
King Thanos of Earth-TRN666 is rather a powerful variant of The Mad Titan. He has a close association with Death and has vowed to please Death which propelled him to kill almost every living being in the entire known galaxy. King Thanos kidnapped young Thanos— a younger version of himself— using the Time Stone just to be with Death. The younger and older selves engaged in a fight but soon the younger Thanos stopped attacking as his future self begged him to slay the king. With disgust, the younger version of Thanos managed to get back to his timeline.
Now, with the death of ‘normal’ Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, it would be interesting to see how King Thanos would fit into the Avengers narrative. Still, his return would be a spectacle in the Multiverse saga giving hell to the Avengers if they get in his way of one of his quests. If he returns, the Avengers: Secret Wars will be much more chaotic as his association with Death becomes more obsolete.
Avengers: Secret Wars is slated for a 7 May 2027 release.
