by Kim Filchak

Ever since we first saw his unmistakable purple profile in the post-credit scene from The Avengers we have been wondering who is going to play Thanos. Well, comic book fans were wondering about it and then explaining to their friends, who were staring at them in bemusement, why they suddenly started making dolphin noises when Alexis Denisof’s (Buffy, Angel) evil facilitator “The Other” dropped that line about “courting death” in the Avengers post credit scene that was not about eating shawarma. Well our wait is finally over. Josh Brolin  (True Grit, American Gangster, Goonies, The Young Riders) is going to be playing Thanos, the biggest bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far.

While Marvel Studios has not officially said anything yet The Latino Review broke the news earlier today:

“Marvel was looking for an actor of some caliber, someone that could give a performance to a very complex, but very purple-skinned alien villain….Our sources tell us that person is JOSH BROLIN!!

He’ll be providing the voice of Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy and with a name and reputation like that, it’s likely he’ll join James Spader and Tom Hiddleston as actors who have tried to kill The Avengers.

We reached out to Brolin’s representatives at CAA and they’re giving us the run around.”

As with all unconfirmed rumors this should be taken with a grain of salt but this one has just been backed up by not less than Variety, who reported that a source told them Brolin has the role.

The physical role of Thanos is most likely going to primarily be CGI, as gigantic purple dudes are hard to find and when you do they never seem to have a SAG card, so Brolin’s work will be in giving voice to the mad titan. This news on top of James Gunn confirming in an interview with Variety that The Guardians of the Galaxy will tie into Avengers 3 means this could be very, very  interesting.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LIQ2-PZBC8]