There’s more to Thanos than meets the eye, in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. The character has only popped up in small roles so far, so casual moviegoers have only seen him as a power-hungry conqueror, but according to the actor that plays him, Josh Brolin, it’s not all about accumulating power. He has a reason for his actions. Not only that, but he isn’t the cold, cruel warmonger fans might expect. He discussed his role in the new Entertainment Weekly.
In the comics, Thanos wiped out half the population of the universe in order to woo the manifestation of Death, with whom he was obsessed. There had been talk of Cate Blanchett’s Hela from ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ appearing in ‘Infinity War’ as a stand-in for Death, but it seems that Thanos’ motivation in the film isn’t simply unrequited love.
As Brolin said:
“… you feel for him. You want to write him off as insane, and yet what he’s doing makes sense, if you break it down… You think of overpopulation and killing half the universe in order to save the other half and all this kind of stuff. You have this struggle watching him. It’s this love-hate thing, you know?”
And though wiping out half the population of the universe seems like the act of someone heartless, he is a father to Gamora and Nebula. From what we’ve already seen in the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies, he was far from Danny Tanner. But does he have just a tiny bit of Danny Tanner in him?
“Yeah. I do think he does. When you see the relationship with Gamora and you see that evolves, God I wish I could tell you. I can’t! When [directors Joe and Anthony Russo] came up to me after we had done maybe three quarters of the film, they said, “It wasn’t necessarily intended that you feel for this guy as much as you do.” Obviously he has a grand plan, like somebody who’s pulling in kids for their own selfish bloodshed. But he has a capacity to love very much and very deeply.”
So there you have it. Thanos– Father of the Year.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, starring Angela Bassett, Dave Bautista, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Josh Brolin, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio del Toro, Robert Downey Jr., Winston Duke, Chris Evans, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, Scarlett Johansson, Pom Klementieff, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Olsen, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Cobie Smulders, Sebastian Stan, Tessa Thompson, Benedict Wong, Letitia Wright and the voices of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel opens on April 27, 2018.
