Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)


 *  NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Thanos (Marvel). 

"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless. It's frightening, turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am."

- Thanos' most famous quote.

Thanos is the main antagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; serving as the overarching antagonist of The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers: Age of Ultron before appearing as the main antagonist and villain protagonist of Avengers: Infinity War. He will reprise that role in its impending yet untitled sequel.

He is an extremely powerful extraterrestrial warlord who commands a massive army known as the Chitauri. He formed an alliance with Loki to invade Earth, and later forged a partnership with Ronan the Accuser to destroy Xandar - both in exchange for the deliverance of two powerful Infinity gems, only for the pair to end up failing with their tasks before betraying Thanos afterwards.

In The Avengers, he was portrayed by Damion Poitier. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War, he was portrayed by Josh Brolin, who is known for his role of Dr. William Block in Planet Terror by Grindhouse. Brolin will reprise his role in the untitled sequel to Infinity War.

Personality
"You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain."

- The Other describing Thanos.

His hunger for power, despite already being among the most (if not the most) powerful beings in the universe, is evident by his searching for the Infinity Stones with the apparent goal of controlling all of existence. He desired to use the Tesseract to look beyond the known worlds to find greater ones that it would unveil. He is also extremely dangerous, bloodthirsty, sadistic, and cruel, finding children that he can raise to be assassins and forcing them to watch as he murders their families. He is also an exceptionally intimidating individual, easily striking fear into those who are his allies even if they hold considerable abilities and powers, with Ronan the Accuser showing visible signs of fear in his presence and Loki doing so at the mere mention of him, as well as being able to command the Chitauri army unchallenged.

Thanos is extremely unforgiving and intolerant of failures, with a loathsome nature; The Other warned Loki that he would know a new kind of pain if he did not give them the Tesseract, something which visibly scared the God of Mischief and made him more determined than ever out of fear of Thanos's power. Even though Thor had not yet known about Thanos, he could still sense Thanos's easy control over Loki as being absurd due to Loki's arrogance. This side of his was shown further when Thanos furiously threatened to bathe the stairways in Ronan's blood if he failed to deliver the Orb, something which scared one of the strongest Kree into submission, and forbade Gamora from rescuing Nebula when the latter fell into a trap whilst on a mission in the Cloud Tombs of Praxius. Strangely, while he did ruthlessly kill Loki for failing him and attempting to kill him, he did not torture Loki first, apparently deeming the God of Lies as not being worth his time due to being far more interested in his winning war for the Infinity Stones.

Thanos has little to no regard for his followers, even his adopted children, showing absolutely no empathy when Ronan killed The Other and referring to Gamora as his "favorite daughter", even with Nebula present. He remained calm even after learning of Maw's death and was not fazed by the death of all the Black Order, although given he said Maw did his mission anyway, it is implied he may feel gratitude for their loyalty and respects their efforts. While Thanos's charisma makes him able to inspire complete loyalty to most of his adopted siblings, he inspires no love, as he is despised by his own "daughters", Gamora and Nebula. Thanos has proven to have absolutely no care for Nebula, as he had no qualms removing parts of her in order to make her stronger, taking her apart piece by piece and replacing her with artificial limbs and organs so she would be able to defeat her sister and always punishing her for failing. He even went as far as to cruelly and ruthlessly torture her and seems to have little respect for her skills as a fighter, going as far as to say that he did not want to waste time killing her. However, Thanos is not completely unable to love. He quickly took intrest in Gamora after seeing her fight against her captor and decided to spare her and even went as far as to shield her from the massacre of the Zehobereis, teaching her on his views of balance. He grew to genuinely care for and deeply love Gamora as his child. Thanos held her abilities above all others and favored her above all of the other adopted childrens, to the point that he entrusted her to find the Soul Stone and was visibly disappointed by her lie. He notably did not torture her but instead Nebula to retrieve the Soul Stone. He was deeply saddened for having to kill her to get the Soul Stone and mourns and feels severe emotional pain for her death that Mantis was able to feel.

Thanos is also manipulative and hesitant to trust, sending Ronan to retrieve the Orb for him and not telling him that it contained an Infinity Stone. He keeps a low profile, lurking in the shadows and making others do his work for him. However, after both of his alliances backfired, he shows that he is fully capable of taking action himself, as he decided to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself.

Thanos is also highly confident to the point of borderline arrogance. He merely smiled when The Other told him challenging the Avengers is like courting Death. He even was unfazed when Ronan threatened to kill him with The Orb, despite knowing well that the Kree was already very powerful even without the Stone, displaying only anger over his betrayal. Thanos also confidently smiled when he decided to collect the Infinity Stones personally.

It has been revealed that Thanos once had a kinder and more benevolent side to himself, as he cared deeply for his planet and people even though he was shunned for being deformed, as he tried everything he could to convince the governments of his planet to do what he suggests. The fact that they were unable to understand his resolve to save his planet and called him insane permanently made him who he was in the present with his desire to exterminate half of the population of every planet so as to save these civilizations from the same overpopulation tragedy which destroyed his home planet. This is why Thanos truly believed his cause for killing off half of everyone in all planets to be a righteous cause, seeing himself a righteous soul who is doing what is necessary to save all the civilizations of the universe, so they do not face the same tragedy as his home planet.

Thanos is also shown to have an honorable side. While perfectly willing to manipulate others, he seems to disapprove of lies, as he never taught Gamora how to lie and was clearly disappointed that she lied on the Soul Stone. He honors his end of the deal, as even though he was angry for Ronan causing him to lose Gamora and returning empty-handed, he was still willing to fulfill the end of their deal. He even extends this to his enemies, sparing Iron Man when Doctor Strange gave him the Time Stone.

Powers
Thanos is frighteningly powerful, able to strike fear into and easily overpower, severely harm and even potentially kill beings as powerful as Loki, who is almost on par with Thor, and Ronan The Accuser, who was among the strongest Kree, Thor at full power, and Hulk. He rules the Chitauri and Outrider army unchallenged. Korath has fearfully said he is the most powerful being in the universe, although Ronan was confident that he could kill Thanos with the power of the Orb. Nevertheless, Thanos displayed no sign of concern after Ronan threatened him. Gamora also blatantly told Nebula she doesn't know if killing Thanos is possible. Thanos was also shown to be fully confident that he is capable of collectively harnessing the full power of all the six Infinity Stones with the use of an Infinity Gauntlet, a feat that no other being have ever survived, which was proven when he was able to handle the use of all six after finally completing the Infinity Gauntlet.
 * Superhuman Strength: Thanos holds incalculably vast, godly levels of superhuman strength, to the point that he is capable of easily wielding all six Infinity Stones with the Infinity Gauntlet, a feat that no other being has survived, making him one of the strongest, if not, the strongest being in existence. Thanos could effortlessly break the highly durable containers of the Infinity Stones, as he casually crushed the Tesseract and later the Eye of Agamotto in a single hand. He was also capable of effortlessly breaking out of Groot's vines and it took the combined efforts of Doctor Strange's use of the Bands of Cyttorak, Drax holding his leg, Spider Man webbing him, Star-Lord's blasters emitting electricity stream to just barely hold him down long enough for Mantis to put him to sleep and even then Thanos was still able to put up a fierce fight against Iron Man and Spider Man's attempts to remove the Gauntlet. Upon waking up, Thanos was quickly able to break out of the restraints, sending Mantis flying with great force by just using a single hand, kicking Drax away, forcibly turn the force of Doctor Strange's magical restraints against him to send him flying, and sending Spider-Man away from him and regaining control of the Infinity Gauntlet. He also was still casually able to clench the Infinity Gauntlet when restrained by countless Eldritch Whips by Doctor Strange's replicas. Thanos is so strong that beings of lesser but still higher superhuman strength and resilience pose no threat or challenge to him, as he proves by being able to effortlessly pin down Spider Man with one hand, stop Black Panther in his tracks with a single choke-hold and knock him out with a single punch, casually restrain Gamora and throw her off a cliff with a single hand. Even though Captain America used all his strength, which was vastly augmented by his determination, he was only just barely able to hold back Thanos’ gauntlet hand and the Mad Titan proceeded to effortlessly knock the Super Soldier out with a single punch. Even beings of the highest levels of strength and resilience do not pose much threat to Thanos, as he was able to quickly rip the Mind Stone out of Vision's extremely durable vibranium forehead, to easily break out from the grip of the immensely strong Hulk and then effortlessly overpower and beat Hulk to a bloody pulp within seconds, as well as to easily severely beating a fully-empowered Thor, threatening to kill the latter by crushing his head. The fully-empowered Thor wielding Stormbreaker, a weapon enchanted to be capable of cutting through anything, was notably the only one able to get close enough to finally injure Thanos and even that was due to Thanos being caught off-guard, with Thanos quickly regaining control over the Infinity Gauntlet afterwards. His strength also extends to his legs, as he was able to jump a tremendous distance to avoid Doctor Strange's rays with a single leap.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: Thanos, despite his size, possess stupendously quick reflexes, as he was able to easily dodge a few blows from Hulk, and then instantly struck him multiple times before Hulk had a chance to respond. Thanos also easily reacted to Loki's swift attempt to kill him, effortlessly choking Loki to death before the latter could react. With just a single hand, Thanos was able to easily grab Gamora before she could strike him with Godslayer (which Thanos broke in the process), and to even react to the extremely agile Spider-Man's attacks, eventually getting a grip on him and pinning Spider-Man down. He was also able to effortlessly pummel Iron Man in hand-to-hand combat within seconds and was able to easily break his sword and stab him before he could react.

Infinity Gauntlet
After equipping the Infinity Gauntlet into his left arm, combined with his already extraordinary physical constitution and raw power, Thanos is granted the potential to safely harness the supernatural powers of all the six Infinity Stones should he add them to the Gauntlet. The more stones Thanos inserts into the Gauntlet, the more power he gains and he acquires the stones dominion over the necessary fabrics of existence. Presumably due to having done thorough research on the Stones, upon only briefly acquiring them, Thanos is quick to fully master their powers, allowing him to use their dominion over the fabrics of reality for combative purposes with extreme finesse, making him nearly impossible to defeat in battle, to the point that he was able to render the combined might of half of the Avengers, Okoye, Black Panther, Groot, and Winter Soldier, all highly formidable individuals, completely helpless against him and Doctor Strange's use of the Time Stone to predict the future saw more than 14 million futures where he alongside Iron Man, Mantis, Drax, Starlord and Spider-Man lost and only one in which Thanos is defeated. After acquiring all six stones, Thanos becomes almost infinitely powerful, to the point that even with a severe injury, he killed off half of life within the universe with just a snap of his fingers, making him the most powerful entity currently alive in the universe.
 * Telekenesis: With the Reality, Power, and Space Stones, Thanos gains the power to exert tremendous amounts of telekinetic force, able to effortlessly levitate, throw, stop and even crush many heavy objects, as he easily interfered with War Machine's flight by holding him down with large amounts of debris, crushed Falcon's wings to send him tumbling to the ground, blocked Loki's knive, and stopped Okoye's spear in mid-air, casually pull, throw and restrain others with his telekinesis, as he easily pulled Doctor Strange to him, sent Okoye and Captain America to the ground before they had a chance to attack him, flung War Machine away and stopped Hulkbuster's charge and hurled him forward. His telekinesis is so strong that he can even move and crush a celestial body as large as a moon, as he moved and then crushed Titan's moon and hurled it's pieces like meteors.
 * Energy Manipulation: After inserting the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the stone's dominion over power, giving him vast energy-manipulating powers.
 * Pain Inducement: Thanos is able to expose an individual to the energy of the Power Stone to cause them to tremendous pain. This was potent enough to cause a fully-empowered Thor excruciating amounts of pain, forcing Loki to cooperate with him.
 * Energy Charge: Thanos can charge objects with the Power Stone's destructive energy to quickly destroy it, as he caused the Statesman to explode shortly after he charged it.
 * Strength Augmentation: Thanos can empower his fist with the energy, using it to destroy the crystalline fractals formed from Strange's transmution of his energy attack.
 * Energy Projection: Thanos is able to project the extremely powerful purple, fire-like energy of the Power Stone in many forms of potent energy attacks.
 * Energy Blasts: Thanos can generate energy blasts using the energy of the Power Stone, as he send several blasts at Star-Lord, although Star-Lord was able to dodge them with help from Doctor Strange using Eldritch Magic to conjure platforms to allow him to jump through them.
 * Energy Beams: Thanos can unleash powerful energy beams using the energy of the Power Stone, as he did when he fought against Doctor Strange and Iron Man in Titan. Those beams were powerful enough that Strange had to warp dimension to counter them and was able to push back Iron Man's shield.
 * Energy Bursts: Thanos is capable of unleashing bursts of the destructive energy of the Power Stone that is potent enough to engulf and destroy entire planets such as Xandar in seconds. He was also able to swiftly destroy a large ship that Iron Man crashed on him with a powerful burst of energy. Thanos also used a large burst of energy to break out of Doctor Strange and his duplicates's Eldritch Whips, destroying them all and leaving only the real Strange.
 * Energy Shockwave: Thanos was able to project an omnidirectional shockwave of energy using the Power Stone that easily knocked down many of his opposers when he went to retrieve the Mind Stone. He also projected a smaller shockwave to knock down Drax the Destroyer, Nebula and Star-Lord during his fight in Titan.
 * Power Negation and Redirection: With the Power Stone, Thanos can negate and redirect oncoming energy attacks, as he easily prevented Black Panther from using his kinetic energy pulse and redirected it to the earth when he struck the latter to the ground.
 * Time Manipulation: After inserting the Time Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos gains the stone's tremendous powers over time. His skill in using the Time Stone's powers are shown to be far more refined than Doctor Strange.
 * Event Recreation: Thanos is capable of rewinding time to recreate certain events with a surpassing amount of finesse, as he was able to recreate the events where Vision died, so as to resurrect Vision and recreate the Mind Stone, even after Wanda Maximoff had destroyed both of them, whereas Doctor Strange could not truly recreate the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro.

Abillities

 * Genius-Level Intellect: Even at his youth, Thanos was deemed a genius among his kind, despite his deformation. His long life allowed Thanos to refine his intellectual aptitude to the highest degree, making him exceptionally intelligent. Hence, due to Thanos's intellectual genius, he is among the most intelligent, if not, the most intelligent, individuals in the universe. His intellect contributes to his ability to conquer many worlds. By simply using his manipulative and strategic skills, he indirectly causes the Battle of Xandar and Chitauri Invasion, both of which caused the formations of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers to fight their respective battles. All the while, Thanos remained effectively anonymous, enough that even the extremely intelligent Iron Man was unable to figure out Loki had been aided by Thanos in his invasion, and with Doctor Strange initially not having Thanos on his list of otherworldly threats. It was only after Thor received a vision on the Infinity Stones that he was able to figure out Thanos' involvement, with Thor admitting that Thanos had been using his intellect to play a very intricate game and has effectively used the Avengers as pawns without them even realizing it until Thor saw the vision. Thanos was even clever enough to be considerably superior to Loki himself, as he easily outsmarted him on more than one occasion - he not only successfully used Loki as a pawn without the latter realizing it for a long time, but he was later also able to successfully finish off the God of Mischief by easily predicting that he would attempt an assassination and countering it casually. Thanos also easily deceived the Guardians of the Galaxy into letting their guard down, thus allowing Thanos to incapacitate them and capture Gamora. Thanos is also highly perceptive, as he is not fooled at all by Loki and easily saw through Gamora's lies that she never found the Soul Stone.
 * Master Manipulation: Thanos is an exceptionally skillful master of manipulation, quite possibly the best manipulator in the universe, as without leaving his throne, with superb manipulations alone, Thanos was able to cause the Battle of Xandar and Chitauri Invasion, which were among the most devastating battles ever known. He even managed to manipulate someone as intelligent as Loki, who was famous for his manipulation skills, with ease by using his distaste for Thor and Odin. Thor has said that Thanos has been playing a very intricate game for years with such efficiency that he has effectively manipulated the Avengers as pawns for his plans.
 * Master Tactician and Strategist: Thanos is an exceptionally accomplished strategist and tactician, with centuries of experience in using strategies, quite possibly the best currently in the universe. Thanos's mastery and experience in using strategy and tactics allows him to create extremely complex and well-coordinated plans and execute them effectively, with the strategies he created and employed being so effective that he gave the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy great trouble all the while remaining anonymous. Thanos is even a far more skilled tactician than Loki, who was famous for being a crafty genius in orchestrating chunning schemes, as he easily deceived the God of Mischief into becoming his minion and later easily predicted and outsmarted Loki's attempt to assassinate him. Thanos's strategical aptitude also allows him to accurately predict incoming events and effectively manipulate said events to his advantage, as he was able to anticipate the Guardians going to Knowhere to retrieve the Reality Stone and arrived there before they could prevent him from taking it. Thanos even went as far as to set up a brilliant trap for the Guardians by casting an illusion to fool them into believing that he is still torturing the Collector for the Reality Stone while in actuality he had acquired the Reality Stone long before they arrived, all the while easily manipulating Gamora using illusions specifically seen in her mind to lure her into emotionally charging at Thanos, which worked to a great effect, catching Gamora and the Guardians completely off-guard and allowing Thanos to successfully capture Gamora and escape from the Guardians uninjured.
 * Master Leader: Thanos is an extremely skilled leader, with a large amount of charisma despite his intimidating persona, inspiring absolute loyalty to the violent and powerful armies of Chitauri and Outriders and members of the Black Order. He is known for having easily decimated dozens of species with his powerful army, killing the Zenohebrei and Luphomoid species.
 * Master Martial Artist: Thanos is an exceptionally skilled hand-to-hand fighter, with millennia worth of fighting experience. Thanos's fighting skills far surpassed even other master combatants, making him the deadliest fighter currently in the universe. His style is shown to be fluid, as he first defends against his enemy before unleashing a devastating barrage of attacks. He was able to easily fight off and quickly force back both Doctor Strange using a sword made of Eldritch Magic, and Drax with his knives while his right eye was blinded by a web cotton), easily fight off and swiftly pummel Spider-Man with only one hand while his other hand was restricted by the Cloak of Levitation), and to easily defeat and grievously wound Iron Man (despite Iron Man's nanotech Mark L armor and sword, which he easily disarmed and used to land the severe wound), with only Doctor Strange's intervention saving Iron Man from death. Additionally, Thanos easily countered Black Panther's charge by choking him with a single hand and then pummeled him to the ground with a single punch, as well as effortlessly defeated and knocked out Captain America with a single blow. Most impressively, Thanos was even able to defeat and beat Hulk (the former undefeatable champion of the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions) to a bloody pulp with ease, as well as defeat a fully-empowered Thor without much effort. It was only with a sneak attack that Thor armed with Stormbreaker was able to land a severe wound on Thanos, but even then the Mad Titan was able to quickly recover.
 * Master Torturer: Thanos is shown to be highly accomplished in many fields of torture, with his skills in torture being quite famous, as the Other implied Thanos can cause so much suffering to Loki that he would beg for pain itself. His mastery of torturing techniques allows him to inflict the maximum amount of damage without killing the subject, as when he tortured Nebula to make Gamora give up the location of the Soul Stone, Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to painfully pull apart Nebula's cybernetics implants, but he was casually able to avoid truly ripping the necessary implants apart in order to cause her severe pain without killing her. The torture was effective enough that Gamora fairly quickly gave in and told Thanos the location of the Soul Stone to spare Nebula from further torture.

Agents

 * The Other
 * Chitauri
 * Leviathans
 * Loki Laufeyson
 * Ronan The Accuser
 * Korath the Pursuer
 * Sakaaran Mercenaries
 * Black Order
 * Nebula
 * Gamora
 * Corvus Glaive
 * Proxima Midnight
 * Ebony Maw
 * Cull Obsidian
 * Outriders

Position

 * Second-in-Command
 * Alien Army
 * Monster Army
 * Agent
 * Agent
 * Agent
 * Alien Army
 * Team
 * Assassin
 * Assassin
 * Assassin
 * Assassin
 * Assassin
 * Assassin
 * Alien Army

Status

 * Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Defected/Deceased
 * Defected/Deceased
 * Defected/Deceased
 * Defected/Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Defected/Alive
 * Defected/Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Deceased
 * Deceased

Victims

 * Zehoberei (slaughtered by the Black Order and Chituari)
 * Gamora's family (slaughtered by the Black Order and Chituari)
 * Luphomoids (slaughtered by the Black Order and Chituari)
 * Nebula's family (slaughtered by the Black Order and Chituari)
 * Dwarves (slaughtered by Thanos)
 * Xandarians (slaughtered by Thanos and the Black Order)
 * Nova Corps (slaughtered by Thanos and the Black Order)
 * Irani Rael (presumably killed by Thanos)
 * Rhomann Dey (presumably killed by Thanos)
 * Asgardians (slaughtered by Thanos and the Black Order)
 * Loki (killed by Thanos)
 * Hemidall (killed by Thanos)
 * Collector (presumably killed by Thanos)
 * Avengers
 * Vision (killed by Thanos)
 * Scarlet Witch (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Winter Soldier (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Spider-Man (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Falcon (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Doctor Strange (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Nick Fury (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Maria Hill (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Guardians of the Galaxy
 * Star-Lord (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Gamora (thrown over a cliff by Thanos)
 * Drax (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Groot (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Mantis (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Wakanda
 * Black Panther (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Border Tribe (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)
 * Half of the universe's populace (disintegrated to dust by Thanos' death wave)

Quotes
"The only matter I do not take seriously, boy, is you. Your politics bore me, your demeanor is that of a pouty child. And apparently, you have alienated my favorite daughter, Gamora. I shall honor our agreement, Kree, if you bring me the Orb. But return to me again empty-handed, and I will bathe the stairways in your blood."

- Thanos to Ronan the Accuser.

"Fine. I'll do it myself."

- Thanos takes action himself as he vows to personally retrieve the Infinity Stones and exterminate both The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.

"In time, you will know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail all the same. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."

- Thanos to the Avengers.

"You're strong...but I could snap my fingers...and you'd all cease to exist."

- Thanos to Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer and Mantis.

"I hope they remember you."

- Thanos to Iron Man.

"You should… you… you should have gone for the head!!"

- Thanos taunting Thor after the latter fatally wounded him in the chest with Stormbreaker, moments before he unleashes his full power of Infinity Gauntlet.

Trivia

 * According to producer Kevin Feige, Infinity War will explore Thanos' plans and motives, even saying "you could go as far as to say he's the main character".
 * In the comics, Thanos was the master of the Infinity Gauntlet, which he used in the eponymous series in an attempt to court Death. He has no relationships with Loki nor the Chitauri, but he is nevertheless one of the Avengers' most historical foes. When he took a break from being a conqueror, Thanos was entrusted with the Reality Gem of the Infinity Gems.
 * In the Amalgam Comics imprint, Loki's counterpart, L'ok D'saad served Thanos' counterpart, Thanoseid.
 * The name "Thanos" is based on the name of the mythological Greek figure Thanatos, meaning "death", a reference to his obsession with Death.
 * Thanos is clearly the Big Bad of the Avengers film series, as he is the one responsible for providing Loki with the Mind Stone and an army to invade Earth in the first film, and that the Mind Stone is what gave Ultron free will to rebel against the Avengers in the second film.
 * Thanos is the only villain who has interacted with every major hero in the franchise; as he was responsible for the events depicted in The Avengers (which featured all the major heroes of Phase One) and is the mastermind behind Guardians of the Galaxy before going on to proceed in meeting them all in Infinity War.
 * In Thor, which was released a year before The Avengers, the Infinity Gauntlet makes a cameo in Odin's vault. This one was for the right-hand, but the one seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron was for the left-hand. Producer Kevin Feige confirmed after the movie's release that there were two, and the one Thanos has is not the one from Thor.
 * However, in Thor: Ragnarok, it is revealed that the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's vault is a fake, meaning that there truly is only one Infinity Gauntlet.
 * The involvement of Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy was largely-influenced by The Avengers director Joss Whedon; the early script by Nicole Perlman had Thanos appear as the Guardians' primary foe, but Whedon was convinced that he should be downsized. In addition, Whedon says that it was his idea to include him in The Avengers, but found him the most-difficult character to write, ironically. He also helped Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director James Gunn cast Josh Brolin as the character.
 * Josh Brolin based his portrayal of Thanos on the performance of Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now.
 * Thanos is one of the three main villains of the MCU to actually succeed in his plans, as he finally collected all of the Infinity Stones and wiped out half of the universe's populace. The other ones are Loki (who took control of Asgard in Thor: The Dark World) and Helmut Zemo (who has managed to split the Avengers apart in revenge for his family's demise in Captain America: Civil War). However, unlike Loki (who loses control of Asgard and ends up being killed by Thanos) and Zemo (who ends up being arrested for his crimes), Thanos is the only one ever to get away with his actions as he is last seen watching a sunrise from another planet, though it is likely that in the sequel he will be defeated.
 * Thanos appeared in a drawing by Thor in the non-canon web series Team Thor, which serves as a cross-promotion for Thor: Ragnarok, on a wall of pictures and information in an attempt to deduce who "the man in the purple chair" is, noting that he's "big", he's purple, and "he doesn't like standing up".

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