After being teased as the Infinity Saga’s end-of-game boss for years without ever actually doing much to show why, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were keen to see if Thanos would live up to his reputation as the greatest threat that the Avengers had ever faced. Infinity War put any doubts to bed, as the Mad Titan decimated Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and wiped out half of the universe for good measure.
Endgame finally saw him get his comeuppance though, reducing Thanos to dust and seemingly drawing a line under both his reign of terror and the first era of the MCU in the process. However, there’s been continued speculation that the franchise isn’t quite done with the character yet, and he could even be set to make a cameo appearance in The Eternals.
Co-creator Jim Starlin certainly seems to think so, and in a recent interview he both praised how Marvel Studios handled one of his most famous characters, and also reaffirmed his belief that we haven’t seen the last of Thanos just yet.
“Well, I understand that the story’s not completely ended. They’ve already announced that. I think a young Thanos appears in The Eternals. I remember reading that somewhere. They made a sh*t load of money off this guy. So I don’t see them retiring him anytime soon. Comic book characters tend to have an extended lifespan beyond the actors who work on them. I’m half expecting to see much more Thanos down the line. But the way they handled him, I know I thought they did a terrific job. They didn’t follow the letter of it. They certainly followed the spirit of it just faithfully. How can I say anything wrong about it at this point?”
It wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility for Thanos to appear briefly in The Eternals, given that the story is set to be a galaxy-spanning adventure that takes place over thousands of years, and in the comic books he’s the son of two Eternals who happens to carry the gene of their arch-nemeses the Deviants.
Not to mention that Kevin Feige has already admitted that the group are aware of the existence of the Avengers. So perhaps their battle and subsequent defeat of Thanos will be a factor in explaining why the team of immortal aliens had been hiding in plain sight for so long without making their presence known.