Josh Brolin Discusses Playing Thanos; Marvel Universe Connections, Getting The Role

The worst kept secret in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was identity of the actor playing Thanos. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige admitted years ago Thanos would be in Guardians of the Galaxy, and months before release news broke that Oscar nominee Josh Brolin would play the character. Even though the official announcement wasn't made until Comic-Con, Feige and director James Gunn both talked at length about the actor before release.

But now that it's officially official, Brolin himself can talk about it. And the fact he's promoting Sin City: A Dame to Kill For makes that possible. One outlet in particular got the actor to open up about his new role and he talked about how it got it, what he plans to do with it, how far in advance he knows what's going on and more. Read the Josh Brolin Thanos quotes below.

IGN spoke to Brolin about playing the mad titan in search of Infinity gems. First up, on how he got the role:

First and foremost, I have a really good friend who I've known for years who's the co-president of Marvel, Louis D'Esposito. I knew Louis as a first AD, and he's the one who initially called me, and then [producer] Jeremy Latcham. Then I talked to Kevin Feige, ultimately. But there's something about them that's so insular and so geeky and so real. I loved it — because I've turned down a lot of those types of movies. Not Marvel, but I've turned down a lot of those types of movies. When they started telling me the story about them getting together in Palm Springs, nine of them flipping burgers and talking about what Thanos was going to do and going, 'What do you think?' like, 'Captain America's going to show up here!' Then, 'Oh my God, what if the Hulk came in at that point?' and all that — I love that sh**. I love it, because those guys are absolutely saturated with that world, and they love story. Another thing that I really loved is, they said that they didn't use directors that did music videos and all that in the past. They would always look for people who had done stories. If you look at James Gunn's oeuvre, he's done even web series, but they're all stories.

He then talked about the fact he had to sign on for multiple films and if there was any hesitation.

Having done different series and all that, it's like doing the best series you could ever do. You know you're taken care of, you know the manifestations are good, you these people are at the top of their game. I've been involved in series where I couldn't wait to play a character and watch the character go through this trajectory, and then you would say, 'Why would you do that?' Like, you're doing that based on a model of what you think people want. 'Oh, we need a love interest now. Oh, we need this.' This is already set up, and it's set up brilliantly. It's like, 'Okay, now how are you going to utilize it in a way that's within Avengers, within Guardians, within that?' I don't know if there's anybody better than them [Marvel Studios]. They understand it. They live it. I can tell you live it too, and it's that kind of a thing. It's like, I'm catching up to you guys, and I love the idea of catching up to somebody.

Then he transitioned into researching and learning more about the character:

You know, there are movies that I've done where I feel like I have a better understanding before I even started than the filmmakers do. And that's disconcerting because they're the filmmakers. They're like, 'Well, what do you want to do?' It's like,'What do you mean what do I want to do? What do you want me to do?' We can go back and forth with it, and maybe I'll have my two cents over here and they go, 'Oh my God, that would be great. Even though that's not really a part of Thanos, it would be a great addition to Thanos, to make him even more Thanos,' or bring even more humanity to Thanos — whatever it is. So I'm in the learning stages that is really exciting. When I first said yes, they sent me so much frickin' research. I was in the middle of doing Everest, and I was focusing more on Thanos than I was on Everest. But it's an exciting prospect, truly.

Finally, he was asked about what he knew, and didn't know, about the future:

I know what one appearance is going to be for sure. There's one or two that I don't know.

If you head over to IGN, there's much more with Brolin about Thanos, talking about Comic-Con and some other things. To me though, it sounds like he's very excited about the role and the potential connections with The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are endless.