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). 

"Fun isn't something one considers when balancing the universe. But this… does put a smile on my face."

- Thanos's most famous line - heard in the Avengers: Infinity War trailer. "The end is near. When I’m done, only half of humanity will still exist. Perfectly balanced; as all things should be."

- Thanos in the second trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War”.

Thanos is the main antagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: serving as the Greater-Scope Villain in The Avengers Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. He subsequently appeared as the primary antagonist in Avengers: Infinity War and will reprise that role in its impending yet untitled sequel.

He is an extremely powerful extraterrestrial warlord 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.

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

History
Thanos was born on a planet called Titan to an unnamed species of large purple life-forms, which was nearing destruction to overpopulation and rapid depletion of resources taking place at the time. Desiring to do something about it, even though he was viewed as a deformed freak by the rest of his species, he made a proposal to the Titan government that they exterminate half the planet's population so the other could survive. However, they all rejected this idea and called him mad for this. Not too long after, Thanos's species went extinct. Being the only known survivor, Thanos started looking throughout the universe for "balance", but everywhere he went had something wrong with it (at least in his eyes); he took the title of "Mad Titan" and started going planet-to-planet, wiping out half of it to save the other half. In his mind, life was spreading throughout the universe unchecked which would bring ruin.

Among the species he wiped out was the Zehoberei, a species of green humanoids, and took in the last known survivor Gamora, raising her as his daughter. Also taken in was Nebula, a blue humanoid from another world he visited, and had both of them given cybernetic implants. Both Nebula and Gamora had a sibling rivalry, but became attached, with Nebula saying "of all our siblings, I hated you the least", suggesting that there were many other siblings. Thanos once calls Gamora "my favorite daughter" without considering Nebula being present at the moment. In their childhood, they would fight a lot, and Thanos would force a cybernetic enhancement on the loser. Each and every time, Nebula would lose and her body became less and less organic. At some point, he took command of the Chitauri species and used their supposed leader The Other as an emissary.

He eventually learned of a way to bring "balance" to the entire universe all at once: the Infinity Stone of immeasurable power. Using a golden gauntlet called the "Infinity Gauntlet", he sought to attach all the Stones to it and wipe out half the universe's populace with the snap of his fingers. At some point, he obtained the Mind Stone (which could mind-control people) and put it into a Chitauri scepter of his making; however, the other Stones eluded him.

The Avengers
In the film, Thanos appears in a post-credits scene, where the Other tells Thanos that the Tesseract, the Space Stone, is in a small world, a human world. It also informs him that Loki is ready to lead the Chitauri, and so he was given the scepter with the Mind Stone to go get the Tesseract. In a post-credits scene, Thanos is revealed to have been Loki's benefactor, having provided the Chitauri Army and the Mind Stone inside Loki's scepter used by Loki in his attempted invasion of Earth. When advised by the Other that opposing the Avengers would be "to court death", as the human race was not as weak as Loki claimed, Thanos glances at the camera and flashes an evil grin.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Thanos plays a more active role in the film, where he has enlisted the help of Ronan, Korath, and his daughters, Gamora and Nebula, to retrieve the Orb (Power Stone) for him. As it turns out, Gamora is not actually Thanos's daughter, since Thanos killed Gamora's family and snatched her as an infant to train her into the perfect assassin, having abused and tormented her in the process of doing so. This causes Gamora to betray Thanos, which leads to a chain of events that leads to Gamora finding her true calling as a protector of the universe and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

When Ronan and Nebula are called to discuss Gamora's betrayal, Ronan kills The Other, who was speaking for Thanos. Thanos does not react to this, but is furious at Ronan for not obtaining the Orb (and for apparently alienating Gamora).

After berating Ronan and calling him "Boy", Thanos says he will destroy Xandar for Ronan if he brings him the Orb, but promises to "bathe the star-ways with [his] blood" should he fail him. Nebula then easily persuaded the frightened Ronan to leave, as they knew too well he is no match for Thanos.

Thanos promised Ronan that he will help Ronan destroy Xandar in exchange for Ronan's services. However, once Ronan gets a hold of the Orb, he feels he no longer needs Thanos help and also decides to betray him. Nebula also decides to betray Thanos out of jealousy over Thanos showing preference for Gamora over her. Ronan and Nebula take Korath with them, while Thanos, unfazed by their threats of killing him, cut off contact with them in anger of their betrayal.

In the end, Ronan and Korath are killed by the Guardians of the Galaxy (including Gamora), Nebula escapes and becomes a renegade villain independent of Thanos, and the Guardians give the Orb to the Nova Corps for safekeeping. Drax the Destroyer, who got revenge on Ronan for killing his family, decides to turn his attention to Thanos, as the latter was the one who sent Ronan to kill Drax's family.

However, Thanos is still determined to find the six Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet so he can use them to conquer the universe.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thanos is indirectly mentioned numerous times in this film; the first time was when Tony said of a possibility that a powerful villain would destroy the Avengers, which made Thor finally realize that someone has been manipulating the events (including Loki) to find the Infinity Stones. This was foreshadowed when Tony and Banner found Loki's scepter and used it to bring life to a peacekeeping A.I. program, which later became known as the homicidal cyborg Ultron, much to both Tony and Banner's distraught.

Gaining sentience from the power of the Mind Stone after breaking the scepter, Ultron decides to utilize the Mind Stone in his plot to destroy the Avengers and all of humanity with his own army of Ultron Sentinels. However, Ultron and his Sentinels end up being destroyed by the Avengers at Sokovia while the Mind Stone ends up in the possession of Vision, just as Thanos finally appeared in a mid-credits scene. Fed up with losing his resources and his henchmen failing him and betraying him in his failed attempts to acquire the Stones and tired of the lack of progress in his crusade, he goes into a white room in an unknown location and takes the Infinity Gauntlet from its hiding place, swearing to collect all of the six Infinity Stones (including the Mind Stone) by himself.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Thanos doesn't appear in the film, but is mentioned twice, once by Nebula (who angrily blames Gamora for the lifetime of pain and misery that she suffered at the hands of Thanos), and another by one of the Ravagers (led by Taserface) as he is aware that Nebula is Thanos' adoptive daughter. Eventually, after having a change of heart and helping the Guardians defeat Ego and the Sovereign, Nebula reconciles with Gamora, but leaves her as she intends to kill Thanos and prevent anyone else from falling under his control.

Thor: Ragnarok
Thanos doesn't appear nor is mentioned in the film. However, his giant ship is seen during a mid-credits scene as it was intercepting one of the Grandmaster's giant ships containing the Asgardians survivors following the deaths of Hela and the Berserker Army, as well as the destruction of Asgard, by the the hands of Surtur. It can be implied that Thanos and his forces are going after the Space Stone (the Tesseract) that Loki saved from Ragnarok following Surtur's death.

Avengers: Infinity War
In the film, Thanos is first seen sending his elite team of adopted children (known as the Black Order) to attack the Asgardians' ship, being aware that Loki taken hold of the Tesseract before Asgard's destruction. As the Asgardians are being slaughtered while the Hulk is sent back to Earth to warn of Thanos' arrival, Thanos coerces Loki into surrendering the Tesseract by threatening to kill a beaten Thor. Loki does so, but intends to reclaim it back for Thor by feigning loyalty to Thanos in an attempt to stab him with a dagger. Unfortunately, Thanos anticipates this move and kills Loki by strangling him to death, much to Thor's horror. It was later revealed that Thanos has previously acquired the Orb after invading and destroying the planet Xandar, and he uses the Orb to destroy the Asgardians' ship, killing all the remaining Asgardians while leaving a helpless Thor to drift in space.

With two of the Infinity Stones in his possession, Thanos sent the Black Order to Earth to collect the Time Stone (the Eye of Agamotto) and the Mind Stone while he travels to Knowhere, where he presumably kills the Collector to get hold of the Reality Stone (the Aether). Using the Aether, Thanos was able to lure Thor and the Guardians into a trap, allowing him to kidnap Gamora and force her into giving out the location of the Soul Stone by threatening to torture and kill a captive Nebula. Having no choice, Gamora confesses that the Soul Stone is in the planet Vormir and is guarded by the Stonekeeper. Travelling to Vormir with a captive Gamora, Thanos is told by the Stonekeeper that he will give the Soul Stone, but only if Thanos is willing to sacrifice a love one. Gamora laughs at this before claiming that Thanos doesn't care for anyone, but Thanos turns to her revealing tears, which may indicate that he does love her. Still not wanting Thanos to have the Soul Stone, Gamora tries to commit suicide, but Thanos reluctantly kills her by throwing her off a cliff to gain hold of the Soul Stone.

With four Infinity Stones in place, Thanos travels back to his homeworld Titan, where he intends to wait for Ebony Maw to deliver the Eye of Agamotto. However, he soon learned that Tony Stark (Iron Man) has killed Maw to save Stephen Strange (the current holder of the Eye) and that several Guardians have arrived after being contacted by Nebula. Though the heroes were able to briefly subdue Thanos, they learned that he has killed Gamora to get the Soul Stone, which provoked an angry Peter Quill to attack Thanos. Unfortunately, this breaks the heroes' group on Thanos, who then defeats them all before coercing Strange into surrendering the Eye of Agamotto to him.

Having collected five of the Infinity Stones, Thanos proceeds to have Corvus Glaive, Midnight Proxima and Cull Obsidian assemble a massive army of Outriders to attack Wakanda, being aware that the hero Vision has the Mind Stone lodged in his forehead and is currently located in Wakanda. This forces several Avengers and the Wakandan warriors to fight back against Thanos's army. At first, the heroes are being overwhelmed, but Thor, Rocket Raccoon and Groot arrived to the rescue with a new powerful weapon, allowing the Avengers and Wakandan warriors to finish off Glaive, Proxima, Obsidian and the Outriders to their deaths. This buys Scarlet Witch enough time to remove the Mind Stone from Vision and destroy it, but unfortunately, Thanos used the Eye of Agamotto to reverse this, allowing himself to collect the Mind Stone before killing Vision. The Avengers then engage into a final fight with Thanos, which ends when Thor used his new weapon to strike Thanos in the chest.

Despite being severely wounded by Thor's weapon, Thanos taunted the heroes that he has infused all of the Stones into the Infinity Gauntlet, telling Thor that he should've aimed for the head instead of the chest. Thanos then used the Gauntlet to send out a death wave throughout the universe before disappearing. As a result, half of the universe's populace start to disintegrate away to their deaths (including several Avengers and Guardians), leaving the surviving heroes to realize in horror that Thanos has finally won. A fully recovered Thanos is last seen watching a sunrise from another planet, satisfied that he finally defeated the heroes and achieved his goal.

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 exceptionally intimidating, 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 has an unforgiving and 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 starways 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. He has little to no regard for his followers, showing absolutely no empathy when Ronan killed The Other and referring to Gamora as his "favorite daughter", even with Nebula present. He inspires no love, as he is despised by his own "daughters", Gamora and Nebula. He is also manipulative and hesitant, 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 benovelent 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. However, despite his dark and malicious nature, Thanos believes that he is destined to save the Universe from itself and while completely willing to kill innocents, he is willing to spare some even if they are not useful to him.

Powers
Thanos has not demonstrated his powers at this point, but it is conceivable that he is frighteningly powerful and strong, able to strike fear into beings as powerful as Loki, who is almost on par with Thor, and Ronan The Accuser, who was among the strongest Kree, and command the Chitauri 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: Little of Thanos's powers are known, however, he holds immensely vast, godly levels of superhuman strength, to the point of being able to easily crush the Tesseract with one hand and touch the Space Stone, one of the Infinity Stones, without showing any strain and insert it into his gauntlet. He was also shown to be able to use both the Space Stone and Power Stone at once with the Infinity Gauntlet, also without any difficulty. These feats were extremely remarkable considering that Ronan evidently struggled to keep the Power Stone in control while Thanos was not fazed at all by using 2 of the Infinity Stones's power. Thanos was also shown capable of effortlessly pummeling Iron Man and Spider Man and overpowering Thor at his full potential without much effort. With just a single hand, Thanos was able to easily almost overwhelm Captain America and leave him extremely exhausted after barely countering the blow.
 * Infinity Gauntlet: Thanos has inserted the Infinity Gauntlet into his left hand and gains the means needed to channel the power of all six Infinity Stones. With each stone Thanos inserts into the Gauntlet, the more powerful he becomes and he also gains the Stones's dominion over their attributes. With all the Six Infinity Stones gathered, Thanos's power would certainly be almost omnipotent, to the point that Gamora said Thanos can effortlessly wipe out half of the Universe, which was proven to be true when even when grievously wounded, he did so with just a snap of his fingers.
 * Energy Blasts: Thanos gains the energy manipulating powers of the Power Stone after inserting it into his gauntlet. Thanos can emit an energy wave so vastly powerful and wide as of destroying Xandar with a single hit. He also was able to emit blasts of purple energy.
 * Portal Opening: With the Space Stone inserted into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos gains the Stone's power to open gateways to anywhere in the Multiverse, allowing him to be able to open portals to basically everywhere, thus granting him the means to effortlessly travel to anywhere, even able to perform interdimensional travel at whim, by simply opening a portal. He uses this to warp into the remnants of his old home using a portal where he battles Spider Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange and Iron Man.
 * Time Manipulation: After inserting the Time Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos gains the ability to manipulate time itself. He was able to use the stone's dominion over time to resurrect Vision after Wanda killed him to destroy the Mind Stone so he can still acquire the Mind Stone and insert into his gauntlet.

Abillities

 * Genius-Level Intellect: Thanos is known to be extremely intelligent, possessing the level of intellect of a genius. His intellect surpasses even the likes of Loki and the members of the Avengers, even the extremely brilliant Tony Stark, and most beings in the universe, with Thanos thus easily remaining hidden from forces seeking to track him and being able to cause tremondous trouble to the Avengers by just applying his intellect, easily fooling Loki and using him as a tool for his plans.
 * Master Manipulation: Thanos is an exceptionally skillful master of manipulation, quite possibly the best, 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 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 displayed exceptional prowess in hand-to-hand combat, as he is able to easily defeat the likes of Thor with his full powers and Spider Man and effortlessly overwhelm Captain America with but a single hand.

Agents

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

Position

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

Status

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

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.

"I hope they remember you."

- Thanos to Iron Man.

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, albeit indirectly, 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.
 * 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 to wipe 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.
 * 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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