Josh Brolin has played some of the most iconic pop culture characters in film this century, from Cable in Deadpool 2 to arguably the most popular superhero villain of all time, Avengers’ Thanos.
However, Brolin says his role as Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t originally meant to be as big as it ended up becoming later on in projects such as Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel Endgame.
As the star pointed out during a recent episode of Tony Hawk’s Hawk vs Wolf show it was initially planned as just being a simple cameo nod to the comics – and nothing more.
“When I did the Marvel thing – When I did Thanos, that was supposed to be a little cameo,” the Dune star said.
“That was never supposed to be those two movies [Infinity War and Endgame].”
Brolin explained that when he first appeared as Thanos, he received a “massive bible” containing a plethora of Marvel lore and presumably information about the character itself.
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He said that when he first began his talks with the studio, he was “surfing and doing drugs” when the studio sent him his Marvel “bible”.
“They sent this thing and I looked through it and I go ‘This is so cool’”.
Brolin then further added that he may not have been as excited if it was just to play a normal character in the MCU, as he explained that the thought of playing a major villain was much more interesting.
He said: “The idea of doing a major nemesis, purple or not, against all these dudes – like, had it been one of the guys, I don’t know that I would have been excited”.
He continued: “But the fact that it was this guy against all those guys? I go ‘Yeah, that’s really cool, and why not?’”
Although the Goonies star isn’t sure when Marvel Studios decided to make Thanos the main event of the now-Infinity Saga of the MCU, he managed to share some insight on the matter.
He said: “I think, I don’t know for sure, but I know that when we started to do it, I think that they were really happy with it.”
He continued: “I think that was because of them too, It wasn’t necessarily because of me.”
He added: “I went in with this Richard Burton kind of Shakespearian thing and they were like ’Nah, that’s not – what you’re doing is not really working’.”
