Thanos

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

- The Other

Thanos is an extraterrestrial warlord who allies himself with Loki, Nebula, and Ronan the Accuser. He is seeking the Infinity Stones and testing the heroes that protect Earth.

Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude
Thanos took in and raised Nebula and Gamora. After finding the location of The Orb, he sent Nebula after it, but she failed as she fell on a trap. After Gamora found Nebula in the trap, Thanos told Gamora to leave Nebula behind.

Thor: The Dark World Prelude
Frigga, the adoptive mother of Loki, observed the meeting between Loki, Thanos and The Other.

The Avengers
Thanos is a powerful alien, a warlord who rules over a dead dimension. He allies himself with the exiled Loki Laufeyson, providing him with the deadly army of the Chitauri, who will help him in conquering Earth, in exchange for the Tesseract, a powerful energy source.

When Loki has arrived on Earth, Thanos is contacted by him, and the Other warns the God of Mischief of the price of failure and reminding him to not question the will of the master, declaring that if he fails in defeating the Earthlings, Thanos will make him know a new kind of suffering.

When eventually Loki is defeated, the Other complains that the Earth's inhabitants are not as weak as they were supposed to be and declares that challenging the Earth's heroes would be to court Death. To this, Thanos simply smiles.

Guardians of the Galaxy Prequel Infinite Comic
Thanos was among those seeking The Orb.

Guardians of the Galaxy
To be added

Avengers: Age of Ultron
To be added

Character traits
Thanos is one of the most powerful beings of the universe, and even though none of his powers are actually shown (yet), he was able to threaten a god such as Loki and command the powerful army of the Chitauri unchallenged.

Relationships

 * Loki Laufeyson - Ally.
 * Ronan the Accuser - Subordinate.
 * The Other - Subordinate.
 * Chitauri - Subordinates.
 * Leviathans - Subordinates.
 * Gamora - Adopted daughter.
 * Nebula - Adopted daughter and ally
 * Korath the Pursuer - Ally.
 * The Avengers - Enemies.
 * Guardians of the Galaxy - Enemies.

Appearances/Actors

 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (3 films)


 * The Avengers (First appearance) - Damion Poitier
 * Guardians of the Galaxy - Josh Brolin (voice)
 * Avengers: Age of Ultron - Josh Brolin (voice)
 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (3 comics)


 * Thor: The Dark World Prelude
 * Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude
 * Guardians of the Galaxy Prequel Infinite Comic

Behind the scenes

 * Thanos' presence in the movie was kept top secret from the production until the release of The Avengers.
 * Damion Poitier was credited as playing "Man #1" in order to hide the identity of Thanos at the end of the film. It was later publicly announced after the film's release.
 * Kevin Feige has said that Thanos will likely be played by a different actor in future films; this has been confirmed with the casting of Josh Brolin as the voice of Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and possibly a third Avengers film, with a physical presence being provided by motion capture.
 * Joss Whedon has said that Thanos will play a major role in the "Final Act", referring to Avengers 3 as a whole, stating: "Well, Thanos is more powerful. He is so powerful he is not someone you can just try out and punch him. Like he did in the comics, you want him to threading through the universe and to save the big finale for ‘the big finale’. He is definitely a part of what I have got going on. The thing about the Avengers is that they are very powerful but not very stable. So, there will definitely be some people that will shake them up in the next installment AoU]."
 * Kevin Keige has reiterated his statements about Thanos shaking things up for The Avengers, and what his role in the overall scheme of things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: "If you remember we had a tag scene in Thor: The Dark World where Benicio Del Toro showed up for the first time as The Collector, so that was our way of saying the Guardians and the other Marvel characters inhabit the same reality and the same universe. In particular, there's a villain in this film [Guardians], that comic fans know as Thanos, that moviegoers will begin to learn more and more about in the coming years. He appeared at the very end of the first Avengers film, when he turned into camera and smirked, and we realised he was the person behind the alien army that Loki teamed up with to terrorise New York City, and that the Avengers had to fight. going on to say "We see him again in this movie [Guardians], we learn a little bit more about him in this movie, and he - and his band of followers - is the biggest piece of connective tissue that will eventually lead us back into Avengers films in the future."

Trivia

 * In the comics, Thanos has no relationships with Loki Laufeyson nor the Chitauri, but he's nevertheless one of the historical foes of the Avengers.
 * In the comics, Thanos is the master of the Infinity Gauntlet, which he used in the eponymous series in an attempt to court Death. He was also one of the many users of the Cosmic Cube.
 * Thanos is one of few antagonists not to be killed in their debut appearance, others being The Other, Loki, Justin Hammer, The Abomination, and possibly Johann Schmidt/Red Skull.