Thanos actor Josh Brolin is open to returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but only under the right conditions.
Although Thanos made his MCU debut in the first post-credits scene of Marvel’s The Avengers, it wasn’t Brolin in the role, with Damion Poitier instead playing the villain through a silent and uncredited motion-capture performance. Brolin wasn’t cast to play Thanos until May 2014, when he signed a multi-film contract to portray the Infinity Saga antagonist. Guardians of the Galaxy was the first MCU film to feature Brolin as Thanos, followed swiftly by a cameo in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Brolin’s Thanos was then featured as the main antagonist of both 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. The two movies saw Thanos attempt to obtain all six Infinity Stones in order to bring balance to the Universe by eliminating half of its population. Despite the character’s death in Endgame, there is a chance Brolin could return to the role as a variant of Thanos plucked from a different universe.
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When asked recently by Collider if he would be open to returning as Thanos for the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars, which will be directed by the Russo Brothers, Brolin gave the following response: “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.”
When did MCU fans last see Josh Brolin’s Thanos?
While Avengers: Endgame marked the last time fans saw Brolin’s Thanos in live-action, the actor has returned to voice the character across multiple episodes of What If…?, an animated series exploring the MCU’s Multiverse on Disney+. While some of these variants are villainous like their live-action counterpart, there are a couple of episodes that depict the Mad Titan as an ally to the universe’s superheroes.
If Thanos does return for Avengers: Secret Wars, he will not be the big bad of the movie, with Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom instead set to antagonize the Avengers in the next two movies featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Stephen McFeely is currently writing the screenplays for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which are scheduled to hit theaters on May 1, 2026, and May 7, 2027, respectively.
MCU fans can stream all the projects featuring Brolin’s Thanos on Disney+.
