Josh Brolin on Potential MCU Return as Thanos; “If Joe Russo comes to me… what he could get”

Will the Mad Titan return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take revenge on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?

Avengers: Apocalypse And Avengers: Secret Wars I’ve got some massive MCU events coming up, and the latter, in particular, could easily become the most ambitious superhero movie ever made. While a number of actors/characters have been confirmed to be returning at this point, we’ve heard that Marvel Studios plans to keep (or attempt to keep) a few surprises under wraps until audiences see the films for themselves, and there’s a good chance Thanos will be among them.

A few reliable sources have claimed that Thanos is set to return and Josh Brolin is reportedly in talks to reprise the role. We had assumed that the powerful villain would be part of Secret Warsbut scooper MTTSH previously indicated he would return “sooner than we think.”

Brolin has spoken about his potential return to the MCU in the past, and while he obviously wasn’t about to confirm or deny anything when asked if he would be back during an interview with ET, The running man The star hinted that he “might have” been approached with an idea by co-director Joe Russo.

“If Joe Russo comes to me, which he may have done, I don’t know, and he has an idea, then I might agree to it.”

Josh Brolin could give hints about a potential return of Thanos in an upcoming “MCU” Avengers film 👀 pic.twitter.com/UMUML9RHBb

– Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) November 10, 2025

While discussing his past roles with Collider Last year, Brolin admitted that he would consider playing Thanos again under the right circumstances – and with Joe and Anthony Russo at the helm.

“I’m not kidding, there’s a problem with playing Thanos. It’s like, ‘Oh, they’re going to bring Thanos back.’ It’s like Sicario; it must be right. It’s like Ryan Reynolds and I are talking about Taylor Swift and we should be talking about Deadpool 4. But we go back and forth. Again, it’s what suits him, what suits me. Thanos must adapt if you want to bring him back. I would do whatever the Russos wanted me to do.”

If Thanos returns, we doubt he’ll play a particularly important role, and there’s speculation that he could actually fall to Doctor Doom quite quickly in order to establish how powerful the MCU’s new big bad really is.

Would you like to see more of Josh Brolin as Thanos? Leave us a comment below.

Avengers: Apocalypse And Avengers: Secret Wars have recently experienced significant delays, with doomsday is now scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.

Both films will be directed by the Russo brothers, who are also returning to the MCU after directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War And Avengers: Endgame.

“Being able to create stories and explore characters from the Marvel Universe has fulfilled a lifelong dream of ours, and we have discovered a powerful connection with audiences in every film we have made. We are thrilled to once again collaborate with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to take this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for fans and ourselves,” said The Russo in a statement after the SDCC panel.

You can view the entirety (for now) doomsday cast list below.

•Paul Rudd as Ant-Man

• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi

• Tom Hiddleston as Loki

• Lewis Pullman as Sentinel

• Florence Pugh as Elena

• Danny Ramírez as Falcon

• Ian McKellen as Magneto

• Sébastien Stan as Bucky

• Winston Duke as M’Baku

• Chris Hemsworth as Thor

• Kelsey Grammer as Beast

• James Marsden as Cyclops

• Channing Tatum as Gambit

• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent

• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm

• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique

• Patrick Stewart as Professor X

• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler

• Letitia Wright as Black Panther

• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor

• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards

• Hannah John-Kamen as the ghost

• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm

• David Harbor as the Red Guardian

• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom

• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing

•Anthony Mackie as Captain America