With Thanos finally getting more on screen time in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ we of course want to know when we’ll be seeing even more of him, and Josh Brolin lets us know a little about what to expect in the future. It isn’t just appearances that Brolin talks about but also what got him to take the role as well as a certain Death.
In a recent interview for ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,’ Brolin’s new role of Thanos was brought up because Marvel Movies are crushing everything at the box office. When asked about how he felt on playing the equivalent of The Emperor in ‘Star Wars’ he laughed and said “that sounds awesome, I love that. It’s what he is.”
What truly sold him on the part, though, wasn’t just that Marvel is huge right now. While I’m sure that helped, what sold him is the story and how excited the filmmakers are while they are putting it together. Much of his individual pitch came in the following form and is what convinced him that portraying the Mad Titan was the way to go:
“First and foremost, I have a really good friend who I’ve known for years who’s the co-president of Marvel, Louis D’Esposito. I knew Louis as a first AD, and he’s the one who initially called me, and then [producer] Jeremy Latcham. Then I talked to Kevin Feige, ultimately. But there’s something about them that’s so insular and so geeky and so real. I loved it — because I’ve turned down a lot of those types of movies. Not Marvel, but I’ve turned down a lot of those types of movies. When they started telling me the story about them getting together in Palm Springs, nine of them flipping burgers and talking about what Thanos was going to do and going, ‘What do you think?’ like, ‘Captain America’s going to show up here!’ Then, ‘Oh my God, what if the Hulk came in at that point?’ and all that — I love that sh**. I love it, because those guys are absolutely saturated with that world, and they love story. Another thing that I really loved is, they said that they didn’t use directors that did music videos and all that in the past. They would always look for people who had done stories. If you look at James Gunn’s oeuvre, he’s done even web series, but they’re all stories.”
What I love, however, is Brolin’s opinion of Thanos’ relationship with Death. I’m going to guess it is something that we’ll finally actually see on screen and isn’t just from his research on the comic:
“His relationship with Death, who is actually the woman, I love that. You can take Sin City [in which Brolin plays a man obsessed with a dark-hearted woman] and pump it full of steroids, and then you have Thanos. I like that he’s motivated by that — not just motivated by destruction or death or this or that. He’s motivated by a very identifiable, human trait.”
What a great way to look at it and a great way to make Thanos almost relatable!
What we all want to know, however, is when will we see Thanos next? While Brolin doesn’t know all of where Thanos will end up being, he does know that there is “one appearance [that] is going to be for sure. There’s one or two that I don’t know.”
I’m going to assume that is ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2′ or ‘The Avengers 3’ though who can say what they have fully set for going down the line.
You can read the full interview where he goes in depth about a little on stage rivalry with Robert Downey Jr. and what limited input he has had for the character over on IGN.
