A new trailer for The Marvels might have just spoiled the return of Josh Brolin’s Thanos.
The now iconic big bad was last seen in Avengers: Endgame when one of his Variants made it over to the core MCU timeline where he nearly wiped out all of existence. Before that, the original Thanos successfully snapped away half of all life in the universe.
Needless to say, those events were very traumatic for everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If marketing is anything to go by, the catastrophic events of the last two Avengers films had a significant impact on Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, something that will be explored in her upcoming sequel The Marvels.
Is Thanos in The Marvels?
A new trailer for Brie Larson’s The Marvels seemingly spoiled the return of Josh Brolin’s Thanos.
While no new footage of the iconic villain was seen, a brand new dialogue can be heard that was never present in Avengers: Infinity War or Endgame.
The new line sees the Mad Titan threaten, “There will always be more to finish my work.”
Seeing as this phrase had never been uttered before, did Marvel Studios accidentally spoil the villain’s return?
While it's certainly possible, the new line of dialogue could simply be unused and repurposed for the sake of marketing.
It’s worth pointing out how Thanos’ voice in the teaser appears as a voiceover while showing images of Zawe Ashton’s Dar-Benn.
The allusion seems clear. The villain of The Marvels could be aiming to continue Thanos’ crusade.
Not much is known about what Dar-Benn might be up to in the film, though dialogue from Captain Marvel herself indicates that the villain is specifically targeting anywhere Carol Danvers calls home.
Whatever Dar-Benn is up to, it’s bad enough to create a big team-up between Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan—continuing Thanos’ work would certainly fit the bill.
The full teaser can be seen below:
Will Thanos Actually Return to the MCU?
Thanos might have died in his last appearance (twice), but that hasn’t kept fans from wanting even more of the big purple menace.
If he does return, he probably should not be positioned as the key MCU threat—but more of Josh Brolin‘s terrific performance is never a bad thing.
After all, some version of his return would make sense given his brother, Harry Styles’ Eros, just made his MCU debut back in 2021’s Eternals. It would be strange to introduce that character and not give fans more Thanos as a result.
One would think that such a return would come in the form of Eternals 2, so a fresh appearance in something as early as The Marvels would certainly be surprising.
But, at the end of the day, this new line of dialogue could still just be repurposed unused content from the production of the last two Avengers films.
There was reportedly lots of cut Thanos content from Infinity War, so Marvel Studios could easily be sitting on a ton of never-before-seen Thanos content.
While Thanos might not be back just yet, fans can enjoy the MCU’s current problem, Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, in Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki, which is currently airing its second season on Disney+.
The Marvels hits theaters on November 10, 2023.
