Josh Brolin Has One Condition To Return As Marvel's Thanos

Marvel Studios

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started out with some very bland villains. For most of Phases One and Two, the villains were all formulaic mirrors of the heroes without much in terms of complexity, who (mostly) ended up dead by the end of the film. Then everything changed with Thanos. Sure, there were exceptions before, like Loki, and Killmonger, but the Infinity Saga really went up on a high note when Thanos was brought back as the main villain of the MCU. 

The character's impact was huge, becoming one of the best superhero villains since Heath Ledger's Joker, a complex antagonist that had people rooting for him. And he was a marvel of VFX wizardry by Weta FX and Digital Domain, one of the best digital characters of all time (and a rather silly character without CGI). It's no wonder, then, that fans want to see more of Thanos.

Speaking with Collider, Josh Brolin acknowledged fans wanting him to play Thanos again, and said he would return to Marvel under one condition. "It's like 'Sicario;' it has to be right," Brolin said, referring to his return for the "Sicario" sequel "Sicario: Day of the Soldado." "Thanos has to fit if you're going to bring him back. I would do anything that the Russos wanted me to do."

Marvel Studios

Though Marvel has had some good villains in the past, the future of the "Avengers" movies has a villain problem. How do you follow Thanos? So far, it seems the answer is "poorly." Even when Jonathan Majors' Kang was meant to be the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, he wasn't really teased the same way Thanos was, with his first appearances contained to TV shows not many people watched and an "Ant-Man" movie that severely underperformed. Now that the character has been dropped from the MCU (with very good reason), the only thing resembling a big, threatening villain is one that we haven't seen at all — Doctor Doom. Sure, comic fans know how big of a deal he is, but general audiences? We spent six years waiting for Thanos to show up after first being teased in "The Avengers," yet we're barely getting one movie with Robert Downey Jr. as Doom. 

Still, it's not like Thanos was intricately planned either — quite the opposite. According to Brolin, Thanos' role came as a surprise to most people involved, even him, who thought the character was simply going to be a cameo. If, for some reason, Thanos does come back, there are aspects of his character and story that were planned that audiences didn't get to see, such as cut flashbacks to young Thanos from "Infinity War."