Josh Brolin portrayed Thanos across the Infinity Saga, last playing the Mad Titan in the animated series What If...?. Marvel has now revealed the actor stepping into the role for Marvel Rivals' upcoming game mode. Thanos first appeared in live-action in the mid-credits scene of 2012's The Avengers, with Brolin taking over in Guardians of the Galaxy over a decade ago, a villain largely unfamiliar to general audiences at the time. Thanks to Brolin's impeccable performance, the character became the blueprint for what a final villain is supposed to feel like. Thanos hasn't factored into a live-action film since Avengers: Endgame, except for a dead variant glimpsed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Marvel has kept him front and center in other media, now with a fresh voice.
Actor Mike Smith will officially voice Thanos in Marvel Rivals' Avengers: Endgame-themed PvE mode, the latest chapter of the game's Path to Doomsday event. Developer NetEase confirmed the casting with a trailer on October 20, ahead of the mode's launch on October 22. The mode drops 50 players into the ruins of the Avengers Compound for a full-scale battle against Thanos and his army, and the trailer gave fans a tease of Smith's ominous take on the Mad Titan.
The footage begins with Thanos' voice echoing through the ruins: "You defied my mercy; now you shall meet your end!" He then commands his forces to attack, and the assembled heroes clash with his army as Captain America leads the charge. Smith's Thanos deals damage with his double-bladed sword and delivers chilling threats that would make anyone's knees shake.
At one point, he refers to the heroes as "insects," echoing Brolin's infamous jab in Infinity War, where Thanos pinned Spider-Man down and called him exactly that. Smith sounds menacing enough to honor Brolin's take while making the role his own.
The actor isn't the biggest household name, but he has a solid CV. He played Yutaka Kanzaki in The Drops of God and the title character in Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island, with credits also including My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Sand Land: The Series, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Spy x Family, and Street Fighter 6.
This also marks the third time a black actor has played the Mad Titan. Damion Poitier played him in the mid-credits scene of 2012's The Avengers, and Isaac C. Singleton Jr. voiced him across numerous Marvel cartoons and games.
The Endgame mode marks the final film-themed chapter of NetEase's Path to Doomsday roadmap, a months-long string of modes themed after the Avengers movies, from April's asymmetrical Loki showdown to July's defense of Avengers Tower against Ultron and October's Infinity War event.
The 50-player PvE battle is the roadmap's biggest addition yet, which is fitting for the finale. The whole thing is designed to build hype for the Multiverse Saga's penultimate chapter, Avengers: Doomsday, with Doomsday content hitting the game on December 18, the day the movie premieres in theaters.
Will Thanos Return to Live-Action, and Will a Different Actor Play Him?
Josh Brolin's Thanos returning to the screen is a move many MCU fans have clamored for, and the actor has shown interest in several interviews, once saying he would come back "tomorrow" if Marvel asked, and teasing just this month that he'd be in if Joe Russo approached him with an idea. After the Infinity Saga, Marvel shifted its attention to Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror, primed to be the new big bad of the MCU's next chapter.
Those plans were scrapped after Majors was convicted of assault and harassment in late 2023 and promptly fired by Marvel. Robert Downey Jr. was then brought back to play Victor Von Doom, the powerful Latverian ruler from the comics.
Doom will be the big bad of the Multiverse Saga's two-part finale, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Some have wondered if Thanos could factor into those films in one way or another, given the multiversal premise, and a rumor earlier this year even claimed Brolin would return in Secret Wars.
Comics readers have also long dreamed of the 2015 Secret Wars showdown making it to screen, the one where Doom rips Thanos' skeleton clean out of his body. Still, a full Thanos appearance remains unlikely, since Marvel will want the spotlight firmly on Doom, and a Thanos cameo would be too distracting.
If Marvel does decide to feature Thanos, though, Brolin is more than likely to return. After how enduring his live-action take proved, the studio would want him to be the one to do it. It would also make more marketing sense as general audiences associate the character with Brolin, and bringing in a new actor would risk alienating fans.
There is one live-action destination for Brolin's Thanos that looks close to guaranteed, though. Marvel is officially working on a Nova movie, confirmed as a film rather than a series by Kevin Feige at San Diego Comic-Con, and a story about the Nova Corps automatically brings Thanos into the equation. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thor reveals that Thanos attacked Xandar and decimated the planet to retrieve the Power Stone, a moment that happened off-screen.
The fall of Xandar has never been shown, and the Nova film is expected to finally explore it. Screenwriter Michael Waldron has already said the movie will have to "reckon with" the Corps' destruction. That seems like the most natural way to bring back the Mad Titan without shoehorning him in just to cash in on Infinity Saga nostalgia.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
