The biggest baddest film
Avengers: Infinity War features Marvel Cinematic Universe’s ultimate all-powerful villain Thanos as played by Josh Brolin
LET’S just put it this way, this is the Marvel movie that all Marvel movie fans have marked on their calendar. An unprecedented cinematic journey 10 years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War (which opens here on April 25) promises the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time.
The Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice everything in order to defeat the all-powerful Thanos before he destroys the entire universe.
We all caught a glimpse of this uber villain in the first Avengers film in an after-credits scene. Since then, comicbook fans have been waiting eagerly for Thanos to finally make his appearance.
In the comics, Thanos was in love with Death, and his main motivation to get his hands on the Infinity Stones was in order to be close to his beloved.
The movie version might differ slightly, but Thanos still remains one of the most formidable villains in the Marvel universe.
In Avengers: Infinity War, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the actor who takes on the role of Thanos is Academy Award nominee Josh Brolin ( far right, with the fist of Thanos).
In an interview transcript provided by Marvel Studios, Brolin said of his character: “The Infinity Stones are what he’s going for. He’s going for all power, under the auspices of trying to fix the universe.
“He’s trying to balance the cosmos. And by doing that, he’s having to destroy a lot of things.
“It’s an interesting character. He is somebody that won’t stop until he has what he wants.
“You’re being reminded that he does have a heart, and you can be empathetic towards him.
“Then suddenly you realise that he’s the worst villain that’s ever existed because he’s willing to go to any lengths in order to accomplish his vision.
“There’s something else that’s feeding him and doing this, and what’s fun in the movie is trying to figure out what that is.”
When asked what he brought to the character, Brolin said: “Complexities. I think that there was a natural vulnerability that I felt, that the Russos also saw, and then we started to take advantage of this dichotomous nature of what a bad guy is.
“So I think we found some colours, not just because of me. The Russos are great at it.
“Marvel gave me a lot more leeway than I would’ve assumed. I thought that given that this is a Marvel movie, given that this is storyboarded [so] intricately and so specifically – I just thought it would be the way it was. “And it wasn’t like that at all. “The Russos and I had an initial meeting when I started. We were on a big, empty stage and when I first came in, I was talking as Thanos in a superformal, totally stiff way.
“They told me to just talk naturally to them, and as I got more comfortable, they kept cutting off whatever formality I had. And I’m like, really? So then I started doing that.
“From an acting point of view, it’s been a real labyrinth to find my way through, and really challenging in the best way.
“This is stretching my imagination if not more than most things that I’ve done, because you have to fully imagine it while you are in a motioncapture suit.”
On what his favourite part about making Avengers: Infinity War, Brolin said: “It’s going to sound so lame, but every time I come back here, it always feels like I’m coming home.
“I’ve had full movie experiences while I’ve been here, and left and done [other] movies, and then come back and continue to come back halfway through the movie. “But I’ve never felt so comfortable on a movie set. “I’ve never felt a crew so married to each other. It’s truly familial here. It’s a family.”