Will The Mad Titan return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take his revenge on Earth's Mightiest Heroes?
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are shaping up to me massive MCU events, and the latter, in particular, could easily wind up being the most ambitious superhero movie ever made. Though quite a few actors/characters have been confirmed to return at this stage, we have heard that Marvel Studios plans to keep (or attempt to keep) a few surprises under wraps until audiences see the movies for themselves, and there's a pretty good chance Thanos will be among them.
A couple of reliable sources have claimed that Thanos is set to return, and Josh Brolin is said to be in talks to reprise the role. We had assumed that the powerful villain would be a part of Secret Wars, but scooper MTTSH has previously indicated he will be back "sooner than we think."
Brolin has addressed his potential MCU return in the past, and while he obviously wasn't about to confirm or deny anything when asked if he'll be back during an interview with ET, The Running Man star did hint that he "may have" been approached with an idea by co-director Joe Russo.
"If Joe Russo comes to me, which he may have, I don't know, and has an idea, then I might acquiesce."
While discussing his past roles with Collider last year, Brolin admitted that he would consider playing Thanos again under the right circumstances - and with Joe and Anthony Russo at the helm.
"I’m not kidding — There’s a thing with playing Thanos. It’s like, ‘Oh, they’re gonna bring Thanos back.’ It’s like Sicario ; it has to be right. It’s like Ryan Reynolds and I talking about Taylor Swift and we should be talking about Deadpool 4 . But we go back and forth. Again, it’s what in his mind fits, what in my mind fits. Thanos has to fit if you’re going to bring him back. I would do anything that the Russos wanted me to do."
If Thanos does return, we doubt he'll have a particularly large role, and there's speculation that he may actually fall to Doctor Doom fairly quickly in order to establish how powerful the MCU's new big bad really is.
Would you like to see more of Josh Brolin as Thanos? Drop us a comment down below.
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America