| Thanos | |
|---|---|
| Marvel Cinematic Universe character | |
 | |
| First appearance | The Avengers (2012) |
| Last appearance | Avengers: Endgame (2019) |
| Based on | Thanos byJim Starlin |
| Adapted by | |
| Portrayed by | Josh Brolin |
| Voiced by | Josh Brolin (What If...?) |
| Motion capture | Damion Poitier (The Avengers) |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | The Mad Titan |
| Species | Titannian |
| Affiliation | |
| Weapon | |
| Family | |
| Children |
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| Home | |
Thanos is a fictional character portrayed primarily byJosh Brolin in theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)media franchise, based on theMarvel Comics supervillainof the same name. He is depicted as an alienwarlord from the doomed planetTitan with a universe-spanning agenda to wipe out half of all life to stabilizeoverpopulation and prevent what he views as life's inevitable extinction.
To do this, he sets out to obtain the sixInfinity Stones, cosmic gems with the power to achieve his goal. With the help of hisadopted children, Thanos fights against theAvengers, theGuardians of the Galaxy, and their allies, in theInfinity War, succeeds in assembling the Stones, and disintegrates half of all life in the universe in an event that is known asthe Decimation. After escaping to theGarden and destroying the Stones, he is found and confronted by the surviving Avengers, and promptly killed byThor once he reveals that his act is irreversible. Five years later, an alternate version of Thanos from 2014 time travels to 2023 to battle the Avengers once again, but is killed byTony Stark.
Thanos is a key figure in the 23 films that make up the MCU'sInfinity Saga, having appeared in five of its films, most notably as the mainantagonist of bothAvengers: Infinity War (2018) andAvengers: Endgame (2019). Several versions of Thanos from alternate realities in theMCU multiverse also appear inEndgame, theDisney+ animated series What If...? (2021–2024) andMarvel Zombies (2025), and thePhase Four filmDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
Thanos' appearance changed drastically over the course of his appearances as advances in CGI and motion capture technology allowed for better capture of Brolin's facial features. A new facial captureapplication called Masquerade was created forInfinity War andEndgame usingmachine learning. The character has been praised by critics and fans alike, with Brolin winning multiple awards for his performance. Thanos is often credited as one of the MCU's best villains, as well as one of the greatest film villains of all time. After his appearance inInfinity War, he became a key figure in popular culture andmemes, making appearances in a variety of other media.
Thanos' story in the MCU takes place in theEarth-616 universe.[b] The fictional biography below includes events that happened to Thanos from more than one Earth-616 timeline, as well as events that happened to him from multiple other universes.
Thanos was born approximately 1,000 years ago on the planetTitan to A'Lars, along with his brotherEros.[1][2] Thanos deems the growth of Titan's population to be unsustainable, so he proposes to arbitrarily kill half of Titan's population. However, his people reject the idea and Thanos is subsequently ostracized. Over time, Thanos' prediction comes to pass, with him and Eros being the only surviving members.[2][3][4]
Thanos, driven by his belief that the universe must be balanced by eliminating half of its population, embarks on conquests involving the killing of half of the planets' populations, becoming feared and powerful while taking control of various armies.[5][6][3] He forges alliances withthe Other andRonan the Accuser, andadopts orphan children from planets he invades, includingGamora andNebula, considering the former to be his favorite.[6] Eventually, he decides to obtain theInfinity Stones after realizing he could use them to wipe out half of the life in the universe. He obtains theMind Stone and places it in ascepter.[5]
In 2012, Thanos directs the Other to form an alliance withLoki. Thanos provides Loki with the scepter and aChitauri army to obtain theSpace Stone within theTesseract by conquering Earth. Following Loki's defeat by theAvengers and the loss of the Mind Stone, the Other reports the failed attack to Thanos.[5] In 2014, Thanos locates thePower Stone and sends Ronan, Gamora, and Nebula to retrieve it. However, they betray him: Gamora joins theGuardians of the Galaxy, Ronan obtains the Power Stone and resolves to kill Thanos after destroyingXandar, while Nebula allies with Ronan. The Guardians of the Galaxy defeat Ronan and leave the Power Stone with theNova Corps.[6] In 2015, Thanos arrives onNidavellir and forces the native Dwarves to forge theInfinity Gauntlet to hold all six Stones,[3][7] planning to collect them himself.[8]
In 2018, Thanos and his children decimate Xandar to retrieve the Power Stone. Shortly after, they intercept a ship carryingAsgardian refugees following their world's destruction.[3] Thanos kills half of them and incapacitatesThor. Loki attempts to exchange the Tesseract to save Thor, but betrays Thanos and is killed. Thanos then defeats theHulk after being attacked by him, and obtains the Space Stone from the Tesseract. He orders his children to retrieve the Mind Stone andTime Stone from Earth before convening on Titan.[3]
Thanos travels toKnowhere and obtains theReality Stone fromTaneleer Tivan. The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive to stop him, but Thanos uses the Stone to defeat them and captures Gamora. Forcing her to reveal the location of theSoul Stone, they travel toVormir, where the Soul Stone's keeper,Johann Schmidt, informs them that the Soul Stone requires the sacrifice of a loved one. Thanos then sacrifices Gamora to obtain the Stone.[3]
Arriving on Titan expecting to meet withone of his children, Thanos encountersStephen Strange and learns his child is dead. Ambushed byTony Stark,Peter Parker, and members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a fight ensues. Thanos is briefly incapacitated by their efforts as they attempt to remove the Infinity Gauntlet. However, oncePeter Quill learns Thanos killed Gamora, he attacks Thanos in a fit of rage, causing him to break free and overpower them. He then prepares to kill Stark, until Strange offers the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Stark's life.[3]
Thanos then teleports toWakanda onEarth and encounters resistance from the Avengers -Bruce Banner,Steve Rogers,Sam Wilson,James Rhodes,Natasha Romanoff,Bucky Barnes,T'Challa, andGroot. After quickly defeating them, Thanos makes his way toVision butWanda Maximoff destroys the Mind Stone. However, Thanos uses the Time Stone to undo it and gains the Mind Stone, killing Vision. Placing it in his Gauntlet, Thanos is in possession of all six Stones. However, Thanos is impaled in the chest by Thor's axe,Stormbreaker. Despite his pain, Thanos manages to snap his fingers, successfullydecimating half of all life in the universe.[3]
With his mission complete, he teleports to theGarden, where he rests.[3] Twenty-three days later, Thanos is ambushed by surviving members of the Avengers,Rocket Raccoon, Nebula, andCarol Danvers. They intend to use the Stones to reverse the snap, only to learn Thanos anticipated this and destroyed the Stones to prevent their further use. Enraged, Thor decapitates Thanos.[9]
Thanos's actions have a universal impact, with the surviving Avengers working to mitigate the damage until undoingthe Blip five years later in 2023.[9] Maximoff is traumatized by Vision's death, causing her to have a mental breakdown and create afalse reality.[10]
Ajak, leader of theEternals, informsIkaris that the Blip delayed an apocalyptic event called theEmergence, saving many planets from destruction.[2][11] However, when the Avengers reversed the Blip, the Emergence continued. Ajak feels the Earth should be saved and recruited the Eternals to stop the Emergence, doing so successfully.[2]
The sudden return of the population has an impact as well, with theGlobal Repatriation Council (GRC) working to reintegrate the Blipped population. It led to socioeconomic conflicts, with entities like theFlag Smashers believing Thanos' ideas were correct. Feeling life was better during the Blip, they use terrorism against the GRC as they felt the GRC favored Blipped people more than the survivors.[12] Moreover, the phrase "Thanos was right" is observed in popular human culture, being used in graffiti and merchandise for profit.[13][14][15]
In 2023, the surviving members of the Blip plan to use theQuantum Realm totime travel in order to retrieve the Stones. 2014-Thanos becomes aware of the Blip after the cybernetic implants of 2014-Nebula link to 2023-Nebula, revealing the latter's memories. Thanos has 2014-Nebula impersonate her future self and travel to 2023 so she can use the Quantum Realm to transport Thanos and his army there.[9]
2014-Thanos arrives within his warship and destroys theAvengers Compound. While his army searches for the Stones, Thanos engages in a fight with Stark, Rogers, and Thor, during which he decides to destroy all life and repopulate it so that life would be grateful.[9] Thanos defeats Stark and Thor, leaving only Rogers. He calls forth his armies, but the Avengers' restored allies arrive and engage Thanos and his army in a final battle. Thanos is nearly killed by Maximoff and orders his warship to rain down missiles to save him. Thanos defeats Danvers, Rogers, Thor, and Stark. After a struggle, Thanos obtains the Stark Nano Gauntlet, but Stark tricks Thanos by removing the stones and attaching them to his suit. Stark then snaps his fingers, turning Thanos and his entire army to dust, at the cost of his own life.[9]
Multiple versions of Thanos are depicted in alternate realities of the MCU multiverse.
In an alternate reality,Star-Lord T'Challa convinces Thanos to join the Ravagers by persuading him there are other ways to preserve resources. In 2008, Thanos participates in their mission against the Collector, where he fights against his former allies, the Black Order. Thanos struggles in the fight, but Nebula helps him, and together they defeat his forces.[16]
In an alternate 2018, Thanos arrives on Earth in Wakanda with a nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet, but is infected by a quantum virus and transforms into azombie.[17] Infected Thanos gradually starts learning to use the stones amidst the fight with Spider-Man, Scott Lang and T'Challa and acquires the last Infinity Stone, the Mind Stone, from them to complete his gauntlet. He is defeated by T'Challa, who also sacrifices himself by lunging at him and plunging them both into Wakanda's vibranium core, destroying the Infinity Stones and releasing a surge of energy.
Jim Starlin conceivedThanos during a collegepsychology course and introduced him as a villain inThe Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973). Thanos was based on theFreudian concept ofThanatos, more commonly referred to as thedeath drive. Thanatos inGreek mythology was thepersonification of death and Thanos has been featured pursuing the female personification ofDeath.[28][29] In the comics, Thanos is a mutant member of the race of superhumans known as theTitanian Eternals. The character possesses abilities common to the Eternals, and is able to demonstrate invulnerability and superhuman strength, speed, and stamina, among other qualities.[30]
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Thanos made his MCU debut inThe Avengers (2012), in whichDamion Poitier portrayed the character and was only credited as Man #1.[31] It wasJoss Whedon's idea to include Thanos in the film as his only instructions fromKevin Feige were that the film's villains should be aliens, and the rest was up to Whedon.[32] Ironically, Whedon found Thanos the hardest character to write due to being the least relatable, suggesting hiscameo appearance as a "lark".[33] Poitier was cast as Thanos due to his past collaborations with Whedon in the latter's showsFirefly,Angel andDollhouse. Under the impression he would playSuper-Skrull due to rumors that the film would include theSkrulls, Poitier was first informed of his true role while getting makeup applied and his face sculpted, asMarvel Studios was secretive about his part to avoidspoiler leaks.[34] However, Feige said he and the filmmakers felt pretty free to recast the role, as Poitier was just cast forone shot, affirming that the depending on the character's magnitude in further installments, they would decide who to cast.[35]
In May 2014,Josh Brolin signed a multi-film contract to portray Thanos, debuting inGuardians of the Galaxy (2014).[36] Whedon assisted directorJames Gunn in Brolin's casting.[37] Thanos was originally going to have a larger role in the film, but Whedon felt that the character needed to be introduced to the franchise gradually;[36]Nicole Perlman's script had Thanos as the film's villain, but as Whedon wanted Thanos to not have a big role in the plot, Gunn opted to minimize Thanos' part in the plot once he came on board to direct the film.[38] ScreenwritersChristopher Markus and Stephen McFeely stated that Thanos' previous appearances in the franchise helped legitimize him as a threat prior toAvengers: Infinity War (2018). Despite this, little screen time had been devoted to Thanos' history and motivations. Markus stated, "We don't get an element of surprise [with his introduction inInfinity War]... You can count on a lot of scenes where we illuminate a lot about him very early", with McFeely adding, "It is incumbent upon us to give him a real story, real stakes, real personality, and a real point of view".[39]
Infinity War went through numerous story iterations, and over the course of development Thanos' presence in the film grew.VFX supervisorDan DeLeeuw noted "Thanos went from supporting villain to one of the main characters driving the plot".[40] In one draft, the film was told directly from Thanos' perspective with him serving as narrator,[41] which went 250 pages and was discarded though it gave more insight into Thanos, while another draft had Thanos having already secured the Power Stone by the time the film starts, but the filmmakers felt he had too many Infinity Stones to begin with, so they opted to open the film in the middle of his plan with his attack on theStatesman.[42] Exploring more of Thanos' backstory via flashbacks was considered at one point, but only concept art was created and no scenes were filmed involving a younger Thanos; one such scene had Thanos explaining his extremistic plans to his people as a younger man, but Markus and McFeely felt the scene reminded "a little tooJor-El onKrypton making his case", feeling that they could imply the sequence without actually showing it and deciding to just have one flashback, that being how Thanos met Gamora.[43] Despite leading the cast in screen time inInfinity War[44] and being considered the main character of the film by many, Thanos had a secondary role inAvengers: Endgame (2019). McFeely explained "we had to give ourselves permission to backseat the villain [...] You're rolling around in the loss and the time heist, and you think it's sort of Avengers against nature".[45] Joe Russo stated that after Thanos was successful inInfinity War, he is "done" and "retired".[46] Since at the end ofInfinity War Thanos had acquired the enormously powerful Infinity Stones, Markus and McFeely had difficulty deciding how to include him in the plot ofEndgame until executive producerTrinh Tran suggested that they kill Thanos in the film's first act.[47] Markus explained that the character's early death improved his agenda.[47] For 2014 Thanos' scenes with Nebula before time traveling to 2023, Joe Russo served as astand-in for Brolin due to his unavailability those days, wearing his usual clothes and the headpiece depicting Thanos's head on cardboard to motion capture him.[48]
Footage of Thanos killing Loki inInfinity War is shown in a scene of thefirst episode of theDisney+ television seriesLoki where Loki sees what his future would have looked like if he hadn't used the Tesseract to escape after theBattle of New York in 2012, creating a branched timeline that theTime Variance Authority has to prune.[9][49][50]
Thanos' storyline inThe Infinity Gauntlet (1991), which was one of the comics that influencedInfinity War, features his attempt to woo the female manifestation of Death.[51] This plot was omitted from the films, as the filmmakers instead chose to pair the character with Gamora and focus on their father-daughter relationship. McFeely explained this choice by noting that Thanos and Gamora had a lot of history that they wanted to explore, which would add layers to Thanos to avoid him becoming "the big mustache-twisting bad guy who wants ultimate power just to take over the world and sit on a throne."[52] The Russos felt that the necessary time to introduceDeath would be better spent on Thanos and the film's already large cast, with Anthony Russo expressing his conviction that adding a character whom the audience did not know about and having to explain her backstory with Thanos so the audience would care about her and find her interesting did not help to carry forward the story as it had been set out.[53] Avoiding the Death storyline moved away from the tease Whedon used inThe Avengers with the character, where Thanos felt that by challenging the Avengers, he was courting death. Though the tease was purposely ambiguous, Whedon felt when he featured Thanos, he did not know what to do with him, feeling that he hung Thanos out to dry. Whedon added that "I love Thanos. I love his apocalyptic vision, his love affair with death. I love his power. But, I don't really understand it". Whedon enjoyed the approach the writers and Russos took inInfinity War, giving Thanos "an actual perspective and [making] him feel righteous to himself", since the Death storyline would not necessarily translate well.[54]
Even when not using the Infinity Stones, Thanos is shown to be a skilled physical fighter, defeating the Hulk in hand-to-hand combat inInfinity War and wielding a double-sided sword in combat inEndgame. Like the original comic book version of the character, Thanos in the MCU possesses superhuman strength, speed, and stamina.[30][55][56]
Digital Domain worked on creating Thanos forInfinity War andEndgame, producing over 400 visual effects shots.[57] The company created a new facial captureapplication called Masquerade, based on the concept ofmachine learning through computer algorithms, specifically for the film, beginning work on the system 3–4 months before filming began to develop and test it. They presented their results to Brolin, the Russos, and executives from Marvel ahead of filming to demonstrate the subtleties Brolin would be able to bring to the character, which helped inform Brolin on how to portray Thanos.[57] Masquerade improved the quality of facial capture and sped up turn around, but was limited as it required Brolin to deliver his performance in a seated capture position.[58] Before the start of filming, Brolin's facial expressions were captured with ILM's Medusa system, which along with hismotion capture data, were fed to Masquerade to "create a higher-resolution version of what Brolin did on set" so animators could apply that to the CGI character.[40] At 8 feet, 3 inches tall, Thanos was made taller for his MCU appearances than he was portrayed as being in the comics.[59] Digital Design considered having "snap" briefly pop up on screen when Thanos snapped his fingers as a reference to how the snap occurred in theInfinity Gauntlet comic. Digital Domain's VFX Supervisor Kelly Port said "as a fun aside, we explored the idea of lifting the actual graphic from the frame of the comic showing the snap, the little yellow action triangles for a single frame of the moment of the snap. They appreciated the idea but didn't ultimately go for it".[60]
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Thanos' design changed drastically between his first appearance inThe Avengers and his larger role inInfinity War. With Brolin's first appearance inGuardians of the Galaxy, motion capture technology was used to capture Brolin's facial features, with Thanos' skin also being changed to a darker shade of purple than it had been inThe Avengers. Advancements in CGI and motion capture technology allowed for the use of more of Brolin's features inInfinity War andEndgame. The shade of purple for Thanos' skin was changed again for the films, now becoming lighter. In earlier appearances, Thanos had four scars on his cheeks and eleven lines on his chin, but the number of scars was reduced to three and the number of chin lines was reduced to nine with hisInfinity War design update.[61] The design of Thanos took into account the versions that appeared in previous films but were adjusted more towards Brolin's features, which also helped with matching his performance to the digital character.[40]
Brolin's portrayal of Thanos was inspired byMarlon Brando's performance asColonel Kurtz inApocalypse Now (1979). In an interview in October 2020, Brolin said "[Kurtz] is very elusive and insane but what he is saying makes sense and is poetical ... I started seeing the parallel which I liked for me. I loved being able to resort to a film likeApocalypse Now when I was doing something likeAvengers".[62]
InDeadpool 2 (2018),Deadpool mockingly callsCable "Thanos" as both characters are played by Josh Brolin.[63]
In 2018, the video gameFortnite featured a mode where players were able to play as Thanos for a limited period.[69] In 2021, Thanos became a cosmetic outfit available for purchase.[70]
The MCU's rendition of Thanos has received critical acclaim, being regarded as one of the best MCU villains to date,[72][73][74][75][76] as well as one of the greatest film villains of all time.[77] He has also been regarded as one of the best villains of the 2010s[78][79] and the 21st century so far.[80] Multiple critics praised Brolin's performance, both vocally and for the emotions he conveyed through the motion capture. The performance allowed the audience to empathize with Thanos even though he was the villain,[81][82][83][84] while also allowing the audience to believe Thanos' pain.[83][84]Peter Travers ofRolling Stone praised both the character and Brolin: "[Thanos is] thunderously voiced by a dynamite Josh Brolin in a motion capture performance that radiates ferocity and unexpected feeling".[85]The Atlantic called Thanos an "unexpectedly resonant monster, filled with sadness and even a perverse sense of honor".[84]
Critics called Thanos a significant improvement over previous antagonists in the franchise.[86] According toScreen Rant, the MCU struggled to create captivating antagonists throughout its first two phases. However, this changed inPhase Three with well-received villains such asKillmonger andVulture, culminating in Thanos, whose "repudiation of the MCU's narrative worship of its heroes creates a deep uncertainty in our expectation that follows through each encounter toward the inevitable, horrifying conclusion".[74] George Marston attributed Thanos' success to "the weight behind his character" because the best villains are the ones who see themselves as the hero. As a result, Brolin's performance almost makes Thanos seem likable or reasonable, at least until "the utter horror" of him accomplishing his goal sets in.[76] Similarly,The Washington Post declared Thanos Marvel's most compelling villain due to his "deep, reflective intelligence" as well as his "profound adherence to his belief system".[73]
Some publications criticized Thanos' portrayal inEndgame, feeling that the 2014 variant of him was more openly villainous than the characterization established inInfinity War, and saying that he ended up "swapping his unusual plan of balancing the population with a less evocative idea of destroying then reforming the galaxy".[87]Screen Rant felt that once Thanos learns of the Avengers' plot to reverse what his older self had done, he "regresses by falling back upon a one-dimensional aim to just destroy the universe wholesale", which made him seem more like a "genericbig bad" in the film. The reviewer argued that Thanos' lack of history with the Avengers resulted in the nuances and connections being lost, notably when he is confronted by Maximoff after having killed her lover, Vision,[3] but which in 2014 had not yet occurred in his life.[88]
Thanos and his "snap" spawned much audience enthusiasm. The websiteDidThanosKill.Me was created for fans to see if they would have been spared by Thanos or not by simply telling them either "You were spared by Thanos" or "You were slain by Thanos".[89] The ending ofInfinity War also spawned the creation of theReddit subreddit, /r/thanosdidnothingwrong. A user within the subreddit suggested that half of the approximately 20,000 subscribers at the time be banned from the subreddit, in order to mimic the events of the film. After the community agreed to the measure, the moderators approached Reddit's administrators to see if the mass ban would be possible. Once the administrators agreed to the random ban of half the subscribers, it was set to occur on July 9, 2018.[90] Notice of the impending ban made the subreddit's subscribers increase to over 700,000, including both of theRusso brothers.[91] Ahead of the ban, Brolin posted a video saying "Here we go, Reddit users", and ending it with a snap.[92] Over 60,000 people watched a liveTwitch stream of the ban occurring, which lasted several hours.[91] The ban of over 300,000 accounts, which included Anthony Russo, was the largest in Reddit's history.[91][93] Those banned then gathered in the new subreddit, /r/inthesoulstone.[90][91] One Reddit user who participated described the ban as embodying "the spirit of the Internet" with people "banding together, en masse, around something relatively meaningless but somehow decidedly awesome and hilarious".[93] Andrew Tigani ofScreen Rant said this showed "how impactful the film has already become to pop culture. It is also a testament to how valuable fan interaction can be via social media".[92]
A populartongue-in-cheek fan theory regarding Thanos' defeat inEndgame before the film's release claimed that Thanos would be killed byAnt-Man entering hisanus and expanding himself within Thanos' body, jokingly referred to by the portmanteau "Thanus", going onto become a widespreadInternet meme.[94] After the film was released and proved the theory wrong, Christopher Markus revealed that due to the strong nature of the Titans, Ant-Man would have been unable to expand himself as he would be crushed by the walls of Thanos' rectum.[45] In 2022,The Boys showrunnerEric Kripke confirmed that a character introduced in season three, Termite, was a parody of Ant-Man, and his actions of killing people by shrinking to enter their bodies and expanding was partially inspired by "Thanus".[95]
Following the premiere ofEndgame,Google included a clickable icon of the Infinity Gauntlet inGoogle Search results for "Thanos" or "Infinity Gauntlet"as an Easter egg. The icon, when clicked, made a finger-snapping motion before half of the search results disappeared, akin to the disappearance of characters following the Blip.[96]
During the2020 United States presidential election campaign, aTwitter account affiliated with the2020 Trump campaign posted an Internet meme of then-incumbentU.S. PresidentDonald Trump superimposed on a clip of Thanos declaring himself "inevitable" inEndgame, with the meme reposted by Trump's ownInstagram account.[97] Thanos creator Jim Starlin subsequently criticized Trump, saying he "actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer".[98][99] In August 2020, Starlin revealed a new villain for an issue ofDreadstar Returns named King Plunddo Tram that heavily resembled Trump, with Plunddo Tram being ananagram of Donald Trump.[100] In the issue, Tram is beheaded, with Starlin saying "a certain politician using a character of mine in one of his political ads may have riled me a bit. I figured he was open game at that point".[101]
In March 2021, to congratulateJames Cameron onAvatar (2009) regaining the title as the number one film of all-time at the worldwide box office overEndgame, the Russo brothers used an image with Thanos' armor scarecrow and the Avengers' logo dusting away into theAvatar logo.[102][103]
In February 2023, during an interview inTime, Cameron gave statements admitting that he has a personal connection with Thanos. At one point in their conversation, Cameron shared that Thanos "had a pretty viable answer" to his problem, one that parallels the filmmaker's environmental activism: "I can relate to Thanos... I thought I had a pretty viable answer. The problem is that no one is going to raise their hand to volunteer to be the half that has to leave".[104]
After the release ofInfinity War, scientific studies were published relating to the Snap, focusing on a variety of aspects including whether it would be possible for Thanos to even snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. The 2021 study concluded that it would not be physically possible due to the lack of friction between the metal surface of the Gauntlet.[105] A study published in 2020 focused on the ability to control matter as Thanos does while using the Infinity Stones. The researchers found that on amacroscopic level, someone would need a large amount of energy to control matter, similarly to the Stones. However,microscopically scientists can mimic Thanos' control of matter at thecolloidal level. The researchers were able to make billions of colloidal particles with changeable responsiveness, patchiness, shapes, and sizes by manipulating them using triggers, including temperature, pH, and light.[106]
Several toys have been released since Thanos'Guardians of the Galaxy appearance. For that film,Hot Toys released a figure of Thanos with his throne,[120] whileFunko released two variants of aFunko Pop, including one that glows in the dark.[121][122] The number of Thanos toy and merchandise items increased leading up to the release ofInfinity War in theaters. Hot Toys released a figure of Thanos and a 1:1 scale Infinity Gauntlet,[123][124] while Funko released a variety of Pops, including multiple variations of regular-sized figures, as well as a 10-inch jumbo Pop.[125] Pops after the film released included a set of six chrome Thanos figures each in the color of one of the Infinity Stones and movie moment Pops, which are Pops that feature characters in scenes from movies. These included Thanos vs. Captain America and Thor respectively.[126][127] Funko has also included a variety of Thanos items in theirMarvel Collector Corps subscription boxes, including theInfinity War box, which included a Pop of Thanos inSanctuary II, akeycap, and an Infinity Gauntlet mug.[128]Lego released aBrickHeadz and a traditional set featuring Iron Man, Star-Lord, and Gamoraminifigures alongside a Thanosbigfigure,[129][130] whileHasbro released a five pack ofMarvel Legends with Thanos and his children.[131] Hot Toys released two figures of Thanos afterEndgame debuted in theaters; a regular version which came with the Infinity Gauntlet[132] and a battle damaged version that came with the Nano Gauntlet.[133] As with the initial wave of figures forInfinity War, Funko released both a regular sized and a 10 inch tall Thanos beforeEndgame was in theaters,[134] while Pops after the film released included Thanos in his Garden attire.[135] After theseason one finale ofWhat If...?, Funko announced a Ravager Thanos Pop.[136]
A variety of Thanos-related toys were released for bothMarvel Studios' tenth anniversary and the Infinity Saga. For the anniversary, Funko released an updated version of Thanos fromGuardians of the Galaxy, this time with him sitting on his throne.[137] To celebrate the Infinity Saga, Funko released a Thanos Pop using the colors of the Infinity Stones,[138] while Lego released multiple sets, including two sets forEndgame's final battle. One includedSanctuary II[139] and the other was set at the Avengers' Compound.[140] Lego also released an Infinity Gauntlet with articulating fingers, allowing for builders to put it in a snapping pose,[141] while Hasbro released a Marvel Legends two-pack featuring a battle damaged Iron Man in his mark LXXXV armor and a battle damaged Thanos.[142]
Entertainment Weekly released an issue of their magazine forInfinity War featuring Thanos on the cover and a cover story interview with Brolin.[143]Empire had two covers for each ofInfinity War[144][145] andEndgame[146][147] featuring Thanos; one available to the general public and one that was exclusive to subscribers. Many posters were available for purchase including the theatrical posters forInfinity War and Endgame which both featured Thanos. Other posters included one exclusive toOdeon Cinemas[148] and one featuring the children of Thanos.[149] Limited edition posters were released for Marvel Studios' tenth anniversary, as well as to celebrate the Infinity Saga with posters for the four Avengers films. Two posters were released for the tenth anniversary, one including the heroes and one for Thanos and the other villains.[150] For the Avengers posters, Thanos was prominently included on theInfinity War andEndgame versions.[151]
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