Six interconnected superhero films formed what is officially dubbed “Phase One” of the Marvel cinematic universe with The Avengers serving as the closing chapter. It wasn’t until last summer however, with Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor did moviegoers get introduced to the larger cosmic universe and the otherworldly characters it hosts.
The Tesseract, or the Cosmic Cube as it’s more commonly referred to as, became the McGuffin that drove the plot of The Avengers, forcing together the characters we met over the last few years and throwing them headfirst into a battle against Loki and his army of alien invaders. Loki was introduced in Thor and after putting on a show this summer, returns for his brother’s sequel Thor: The Dark World next fall. But as we learned during a few off-planet scenes in The Avengers, Loki was merely a servant of someone and something much greater.
When Joss Whedon was brought in to helm The Avengers he completely rewrote the script previously drafted by Zak Penn. Marvel President of Production Kevin Feige only had a few guidelines for what Whedon’s film must include: a Tesseract-powered portal opening in New York leading to an alien invasion. The Chitauri and their leader who showed up during the mid-credits sequence, Thanos, were selected by Whedon, and it was done so very intentionally.
For years, Feige has namedropped the Guardians of the Galaxy as a property he and Marvel Studios were legitimately interested in adapting into a feature film in an effort to bring fans deeper into the cosmic side of Marvel Comics. If Iron Man were a B-List character before he got his own movie, the Guardians are D-List. The success and acceptance of The Avengers and its sci-fi elements has allowed them to take even greater risks and as we learned (officially) at Comic-Con, that’s exactly the plan. It’s always been a near certainty that Thanos would return for Guardians of the Galaxy but his role in the bigger picture plans for the future of the franchise hasn’t been so clear.
On the Screen Rant Underground podcast we talked in detail on several occasions about our theories of Guardians introducing a new set of characters to battle Thanos in a story that would serve as a lead-in to The Avengers 2 the following summer. Since that time, Joss Whedon signed to write and direct The Avengers 2 with a release date in May 2015, meaning it’s picking up where Guardians of the Galaxy will end. Can we then expect Thanos to be the primary villain of The Avengers 2? Yes.
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Next: Thanos Creator Jim Starlin Spills the Beans
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Jim Starlin created the character Thanos and was responsible for his most popular appearances beginning with the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries. He was not however, given any credit, notice or as he points out, a ticket to see The Avengers movie despite his creation showing up at the end. He loved the movie but was none to happy about how he was(n’t) treated by Marvel. He said the following to Hero Complex about Thanos showing up in The Avengers a week after the film hit North American theaters.
“It’s nice to see my work recognized as being worth something beyond the printed page, and it was very cool seeing Thanos up on the big screen. Joss Whedon and his crew did an excellent job on The Avengers movie and I look forward to the sequel, for obvious reasons. But this is the second film that had something I created for Marvel in it — the Infinity Gauntlet in Thor being the other – and both films I had to pay for my own ticket to see them. Financial compensation to the creators of these characters doesn’t appear to be part of the equation.”
Negative buzz – or potential legal proceedings – from an unhappy creator of a character key to the film franchise is the last thing Marvel Studios needs and Starlin was quickly brought in for damage control (oddly enough, the Thanos prequel comic was also suspiciously canceled by Marvel in July). Starlin has since chatted with Comic Book Therapy where he revealed that he was “in talks” with David Bogart, SVP of Operations & Procurement, Publishing at Marvel Entertainment. According to a reader of Cosmic Book News who chatted with Starlin at Montreal Comic-Con this weekend, Starlin now has a deal in place with Marvel and will seemingly be compensated for his creations being used in the films.
And we pluralize “films” because Starlin said that Thanos will appear in both Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2. It’s not a surprise as Thanos’ role in Marvel Comics is much more far-reaching than that of a villain relegated to battling only the Guardians and it opens the doors to a lot of speculation about the connectivity between a few of the Phase Two films. Without getting into too much detail or summing up key story lines from the books, Thanos is going to want/need that pretty golden glove hidden away in Odin’s Vault, as revealed in Thor. That’s the overly powerful Infinity Gauntlet and from the sounds of it, quite a few of the items in that vault may no longer be in the vault a few films from now.
That could mean that Thor: The Dark World will tease Guardians of the Galaxy and the villains of the Thor sequel may breakout the items from the vault (bring on Dr. Strange!). Either way, The Guardians of the Galaxy are going to be protecting Earth from the villain also known as The Mad Titan and they do not want him to get the Infinity Gauntlet. The Avengers really won’t want him to have that glove either come time for their second team-up.
For more discussion, check out our breakdown of the Guardians of the Galaxy logline, read about James Gunn directing, and check out all the concept art.
Anxious to see Thanos courting Death?
Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014 and The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015.
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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Sources: Cosmic Book News, CBR
Header image edited from The Thanos Imperative (2010) #3 covert art by Aleksi Briclot.
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@ Rob…I read nothing that would imply that Thanos is the “Primary” villain in either GotG or Avengers 2. He might play a larger role than just appearing at the end of a button but to use him in especially Avengers 2 as the main villain would leave us nowhere to go but down (and having him be the primary villain on both Avengers 2 AND 3 is not a good idea either.)
Thanos is best used as the string-puller, the shot-caller. We pretty much know what his aim is, if they are faithful to the comics. Whedon didn’t drop that “court Death” line for nothing. We know that’s his main goal. However, that’s all a bit too heavy and deep to immediately make obvious. Those who know the comics know what that means. But it went over the heads of the majority of the audience, so they have to build to it. Every step, every move that Thanos makes, either by himself or via one of his proxies, is leading to that. So it’s good that Whedon is signed on and acting as the godfather to make sure that all movies are lining up for that eventual buildup.
Thanos seems to be more like the Emperor in Star Wars. I alluded to it in an other article’s comment section, but it looks like the Avengers 2 will need to be played out over 2 or 3 movies just so they can properly implement the menace that he is and also for them to counter the Justice Leaugue.
I agree to part of what you said about Thanos being like the Emperor in Star Wars. I would say Thanos is more like Vader and the Emperor combined. He does play in the background, but when he has to he will come to the forefront and put a boot in someones chest if needed. He is the type that will use his pawns to set eveything up so he can come in and knock all the pins down so to speak.
definitely, I think that Guardians of The Galaxy however will serve as his origin story… similar to Thor being a perfect origin story for Loki. After watching the Avengers, going back to Thor we ended up seeing a completely different movie. So I’m looking forward to seeing how this all play out. If the math is correct though, due to the nature of Iron Man 3 we will only see Captain America and Shield make a cameo in that one.
Smart move by Marvel to put out Thanos well before Warner Bros. gives us Darkseid in a Justice League movie. Even though Darkseid is a much more relevant villain in the DCU, the similarities to casual audiences with only benefit the character that gets onscreen first…Tie goes to the runner.
Too bad Warner Bros. didn’t have the foresight to feature Darkseid as the villain in Man of Steel as opposed to the General Zod retread (Michael Shannon would’ve made a GREAT Darkseid, by the way).
Nah, Darkseid can still easily and effectively be put out into whatever DCMU forms without being cut down by the presence of a previously-released Thanos in the MCMU. Different stories will allow for different experiences in the respective films…if done well.
I just hope they show the Leader at sme point gen he was created in the Hulk film and is a smart villain that could be used to create a Genetic army and was one of Hulk biggest villains.
Thanos will be primal vilain guardians of the galaxy,the avengers 2 and general zod is the vilain superman:man of steel and they will bring loki back thor 2 ,thor 3 the avengers 2,3 and also they will bring darkseid from the justice league movies and will we will see future vilain in marvel,dc movies.
I think the whole point of Thor 2 will be for Loki to steal the Infinity Gauntlet. Effectively setting up the events in The Avengers as a distraction to what the real plan is
It’s actually been stated that Loki will not have a major role in Thor 2, he’s just there because you can’t have a Thor film without him.
why no mention of adam warlock???
I thought it was kind of a given that Thanos would be involved heavily in Avengers 2 and Guardians, since they teased him at the end of Avengers. Aside from Loki they haven’t established and other villains and unless the Red Skull comes back they are going to have to start pulling names out of the hat for future films.
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Big ups for Thanos showing up, now I wonder if we will see Galactus (one of my fav villains) knowing they did a lot of battling (and even helped each other) in the comics.
They’ll probably use Thanos in The Avengers 2, but as for 3, anyone else interested in seeing one of the Earth-based villains rather than endless alien invasions?
Adam Warlock was the only one who could stand up to Thanos. The Soul Gem was the reason. Another factor no one is bringing up is Mephisto. Very odd that we will see a ‘cosmic’ direction with these new movies and the one guy, The Silver Surfer, is not available. Nova, Quasar and The Guardians are altogether worth one Silver Surfer. Then there is another cosmic character people overlooked, The Watcher. Avengers 2 will be act 2, if they are going for trilogies of Cap and Thor then part 2 cannot resolve anything, unless, Through Adam Warlock there was Magus. That is the order of events in Marvel, Infinity Gauntlet (best), then Infinity War. If they reboot Avengers down the road, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. ‘Civil War’. Until Marvel can use the entirety of ‘The House of Ideas’, we will always grumble about What If’s.
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Just want to know if the hulk will be in any of these movies??? Also if he is will he be looking like he was in Avenger’s which he did not look as cool as he did in the second hulk. Which I think he look very real. In Avenger’s he look like and ape. I think Avenger’s was great, I just didn’t like how hulk came out after seeing how he looked in the second one.
Thanos is gonna be pretty badass in GotG and A2. I’m hoping we get another Hulk movie as well, that’s one thing I want more than any of these movies.
These should be a game in gamestop
kudos to Marvels the Avengers! what im excited about is the credits,,with the appearance of the Mad Titan ,,am sure that he will make Avengers struggle. and silver surfer will make his appearance in avengers 2
With the events that follow in phase 2 it seems the MCU is turning over to the dark side of the leaf. Think, Tony’s house gets blown up, friends and personal life in danger, Asgard under attack by Malekith resulting in Friggas death, Cap trying to fit in with the new world being all alone, it all ties into a type of tradition. And with the inclusion of Thanos, the threat will be much more vast. We can expect a few casualties among our fellow avengers if this “court death” thing pulls through. If the big guy can take on 90% of the Marvel Universe without breaking a sweat, we can say that the Avengers are screwed, unless….we get a few suprises. Overall, I am overall excited for phase 2!
So excited to see each and every one of the movies…love how Marvel is keeping us (the audience) entranced….till May 2015 at least!
personally I would like to see Thanos have a reason to take on the avengers and guardians. sort of revenge like. say the first guardians show his lover death and she possibly gets captured or killed, then avengers 2 he uses people to confront the avengers and the baddies lose, then guardians 2 use his son who gets captured or killed and avengers 3, thanos steps in and takes them all on at once. just before he returns have the avengers send hulk to planet hulk (probably not going to happen sadly) and that leads to WWH and Civil War as well as Avengers vs X-Men.have those 4 stories two years apart
ultron would make a great villian in avengers 3
or maybe dr doom or dark surfer these are just examples
the truth is i am iron man