Josh Brolin is set for the role of Thanos in Marvel Studios’ upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, according to sources speaking to both Latino Review and Variety. Guardians is Marvel’s summer blockbuster, releasing on August 1 and following the fantastically well-received spring release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
It’s not clear how large a role Thanos plays in Guardians, though he did appear in the post-credits scene for The Avengers and he’s a major character in Marvel’s comic book universe. Between the Thanos appearance in Avengers, a post-credits drop-in from The Collector (played by Benicio del Toro) in Thor: The Dark World, and now this, fan theories that Marvel is building up to a Cinematic Universe treatment of the Infinity Gauntlet saga is looking like a very real possibility.
Brolin is an accomplished actor with notable and sometimes award-winning roles in a diverse range of films, including Milk, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit, but he hasn’t had the best track record with comic book movies (see also: Men in Black III, Jonah Hex). The flipside to that is Brolin likely only lends his voice to Thanos, being that the character is a giant, hulking alien creature with purple skin.
