What Marvel's Thanos Looks Like In Real Life

Almost no character looms larger in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than the Mad Titan himself, Thanos. The powerful, ruthless villain's desire to decimate half of the MCU's living population makes him the central antagonist of the franchise's Infinity Saga. After appearing a handful of times in previous MCU movies, Thanos finally gets the chance to truly shine in 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War" and 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," which bring his years-long campaign to a time-bending, explosive conclusion.

To date, no big-screen Marvel villain has made a bigger impact than Thanos, and few are still discussed with as much passion among fans. It's for these reasons that it's all the more impressive how little the character resembles Josh Brolin, the actor who plays him. Obviously, his recurring turn as the massive, purple-skinned MCU villain was brought to life using performance-capture technology; this allowed the behind-the-scenes artists to visually transform Brolin into Thanos without having to erase any of the facial and physical nuances of his performance.

By all indications, it seems like everyone involved was happy with how Brolin's take on Thanos was represented onscreen. However, that doesn't mean Brolin himself looks all that much like an eight foot tall alien conqueror. On the contrary, he not only looks wildly different than the Mad Titan in real life but has starred in enough popular, acclaimed movies to become one of the most recognizable actors working in Hollywood right now. In addition to Thanos, he's even played a few other iconic comic book characters.

While some comic book readers may not know what he looks like in real life, it's worth noting that Josh Brolin has been a working Hollywood actor since the '80s. His first-ever screen role was that of Brand in the beloved 1985 adventure film, "The Goonies." He followed up his breakout turn in that film with roles in a string of other, lesser-known '80s and '90s movies, including "Thrashin'," "The Road Killers," and "Nightwatch." Later, he appeared as Llewelyn Moss in 2007's "No Country For Old Men," which re-established him as one of the most promising actors of his generation.

The next year, he played George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's "W." and Dan White in "Milk," the latter of which earned him his sole Oscar nomination to date. In the years since then, Brolin has had noteworthy roles in high-profile films like "Men in Black 3," "Sicario," and "Dune." He's also appeared in a handful of other acclaimed dramas and comedies, including "True Grit," "Hail, Caesar!," "Only the Brave," and "Inherent Vice." He even dipped his toes into the comic book genre, albeit unsuccessfully, when he played the eponymous role in 2010's "Jonah Hex."

In 2018, after making his first screen appearance as Thanos in 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy," Brolin even took on the iconic role of Cable in "Deadpool 2." His turn as Cable didn't require Brolin to undergo the same kind of CGI transformation that Thanos demanded, but it turns out that the actor actually preferred playing the purple-skinned cosmic dictator to his time-traveling "Deadpool 2" mercenary.

One would likely assume that an actor like Josh Brolin would prefer playing a character like Cable, who allows him to appear largely as himself onscreen, over a villain like Thanos. However, Josh Brolin has revealed that he ultimately felt freer playing his iconic MCU villain than he ever did on the set of "Deadpool 2." The actor said as much during a 2020 appearance on the "Team Deakins" podcast.

"'Deadpool' was hard," Brolin admitted. "Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, 'We need to make this like this.'" The Oscar-nominated actor noted that he felt more creatively inspired playing Thanos than Cable. "I mentioned [Marlon] Brando in 'Apocalypse Now,'" the actor recalled. "I loved being able to resort to a film like 'Apocalypse Now' when I was doing something like 'Avengers.'"

In the same interview, Brolin revealed how blown away he was by the performance capture technology that was used to complete his turn as Thanos: "The more I watched it, the more I realized this is a real guy. This is not a big purple guy. This is a guy with insides and cells and feelings. Then it became fun."

Of course, while Brolin may have liked playing Thanos more than Cable, both characters now rank as two of the most popular that he has ever portrayed. In fact, it seems safe to say that Brolin has brought more than enough characters to life at this point to secure himself a lasting legacy – even if one of his best-known roles did require a considerable digital transformation.