After being teased at the end of The Avengers, Thanos went on to briefly appear in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron, then play central roles in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The Mad Titan served as the main antagonist of The Infinity Saga, but in Endgame, both the original version and his counterpart from an alternate timeline met their demises. And yet, a new preview for the upcoming Marvel movie The Marvels has me wondering if the MCU is teasing that more of Thanos is coming.
With a little under two weeks until The Marvels hits theaters, a new spot has been released called “Beginning,” which begins with footage of Avengers: Endgame, both of Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, her Avengers allies and Thanos, specifically the version of him that destroyed the Avenger Compound. This first portion of the video is also narrated by Josh Brolin’s character, and there’s a specific line of dialogue that sticks out:
There will always be more to finish my work.
As someone who’s gone through the Marvel movies in order many times, I can recognize new Thanos dialogue when I heard it. Granted, this line sounds a tad stitched together, but we never heard the purple-skinned villain utter those words in any of his previous MCU appearances. So this then begs the question, will The Marvels include a new scene featuring Thanos? Watch the preview below to judge for yourself:
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that Thanos will be revived in The Marvels. Even if there was a way to bring back either the main Thanos following his beheading at Thor’s hands, or the alternate Thanos after he was turned to dust by the Infinity Stones thanks to Tony Stark sacrificing his life, we’ve moved on from him being the big bad. Rather, I’m curious if The Marvels will include a flashback of him prior to Avengers: Infinity War that ties him to this movie’s chief antagonist, Zawe Ashton’s Dar-Benn, a Kree revolutionary who, like Thanos, is connected to the late Ronan the Accuser. Could these two have crossed paths and perhaps been temporarily allied with each other?
On the other hand, it’s possible that Thanos has nothing to do with The Marvels, and this previously-unheard-of line was simply included to promote the third theatrical entry in the MCU’s Phase 5. After all, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are still among the most beloved movies in this franchise, so if there’s a way to utilize that antagonist to hype up its latest release, I don’t blame Marvel Studios for doing so. Still, my fingers are crossed that we get some new Thanos footage in this flick, if only to flesh out the fan-favorite bad guy a little more.
Serving as a sequel to five MCU projects, The Marvels sees Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan finding themselves switching places with one another when they use their respective light-based powers. Nia DaCosta directed the feature and co-wrote the script with Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik. The Marvels opens on November 10, so make you’ve caught up on Carol, Monica and Kamala’s previous appearances with your Disney+ subscription beforehand.
