Thanos is Confirmed for Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers 2!

Thanos vs. the Universe: Thanos Wins

What’s more exciting than Thanos? Well, if you’re a fan of Marvel and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not much at this point.

One of the MANY awesome scenes in this summer’s The Avengers movie — you might have heard of it; it grossed over a $1.4 billion worldwide — came after the final credits. He’s only there for a second to stand up and flash a villainous purple smile, but it’s the Mad Titan himself.

Watch the Scene in this Exclusive Clip from Marvel

What’s a Thanos?

Born on Saturn’s moon Titan and basically having all the powers of a god, Thanos first appeared in Iron Man in 1973, but it wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that he came of age.

The Infinity Gauntlet (seen below) was a company-wide crossover and huge success for Marvel. Also one of its best storylines ever, with the plot woven into multiple comics and of course in the six-issue The Infinity Gauntlet series itself.

Thanos: Because if you’re going to have a god who’s in love with Death for a villain, you go big.

The Big Plan

And since Thanos has already worked so well in a crossover, the idea seems to be to do the same in the movies. Hey, if it ain’t broke.

Thanos has been confirmed as the main villain in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, to be directed by James Gunn (of Super fame) and will reportedly have a large role to play in The Avengers 2 too.

As if Thanos could be any kind of character besides “major.”

The downside? The Avengers 2 movie isn’t slated to hit theaters until 2015, for a start. Marvel will probably tease the big man in Iron Man 3 or Thor: The Dark World, but you know that the fight will come to a head in Avengers 2, if not Avengers 3.

So we’re a couple years off from figuring this whole thing out. Don’t worry about the meantime, though, as there are plenty of ways to get your fix. Thanos will feature in a huge merchandising campaign for Disney (the studio behind the movies, duh), and Marvel has already given a treat to gamers everywhere this year thanks to WizKids!

Infinity Gauntlet OP

If you’re a gamer, get yerself over to the good folks at WizKids, who ran an Infinity Gauntlet Organized Play event for most of this year. Perhaps it’s best to let them explain it:

The program is built around the story of Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. Each month players will gather at stores everywhere to compete for coveted Limited Edition figures, culminating with winners receiving Thanos atop his Shrine to Death. However, we also layered in a VERY strong participation prize element into the program. In Kit 1, each player will be given a “gem-less” Infinity Gauntlet object just for showing up to the 1st event.

Okay, so maybe the first month was January, but it’s never too late to catch up!