The time has come for Thanos to conquer the world in the upcoming Marvel feature film "Avengers: Infinity War." His arrival on Earth will prompt the greatest collaboration of comic book superheroes to fight the most powerful villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Aside from seeing the Earth's mightiest heroes getting beaten by Thanos, the fans will get to learn about his somehow tragic past. Josh Brolin, who will portray the Mad Titan in the movie, even likened his character to Quasimodo from the classic Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
In spite of the number of appearances of Thanos in the previous Marvel movies, mostly in post-credits scenes, the public has still a lot to know about the supervillain. Now that Thanos will be the focus of "Avengers: Infinity War," there is now an opportunity to know why the character ended up as a wretched individual. Contrary to the fans perception of the character as a mass murderer and power-thirsty tyrant who seeks the powerful infinity stones, Thanos originally was a kindhearted Titan who experienced a troubled past, according to Brolin in his interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The actor compared Thanos' character journey to Quasimodo's in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." He revealed that Thanos was born different from the rest of his family, thus his fellow Titans had always noticed his deformity. With this, he was always misunderstood by his own kind, prompting him to change his ways and become the evil and abusive ruler that he is now.
"He stuck out. He was an anomaly. He was a freak. And that lent to this apparent insanity," Brolin said. Comic Book reported that some scenes in "Avengers: Infinity War" will revisit Thanos' childhood years, showing how his planet was destroyed by outside forces and how he became powerful enough to conquer it. Likewise, Thanos' relationship with his daughters will also be explored. After all, the Mad Titan might not actually be the heartless father that he was made to appear.
"Avengers: Infinity War" will be released in theaters worldwide on Apr. 27.
