The 2025 movie schedule is rolling right along, and with it we’ve seen the ever-increasing number of Marvel movies in order continue to do the same. While The Fantastic Four: First Steps was pretty successful at rounding out this year’s big-screen MCU blockbusters, there are still numerous upcoming superhero movies where our favorites will return. With that, it’s hard not to think about those who portrayed past heroes and villains, like Josh Brolin. He’s now opened up about whether or not he’d like to return as Thanos or Cable, and had a very thoughtful position on the matter.
What Did Josh Brolin Say About Playing Thanos Or Cable Again?
There are several actors who have played more than one MCU role in the Marvel multiverse, and we can count Weapons star Josh Brolin among that number. The actor helped make The Mad Titan a force to be reckoned with across several films in the Infinity Saga, and also appeared as the futuristic, cybernetic revenge-seeking soldier Cable in 2018’s Deadpool 2.
We are currently a little over a year away from another major Marvel team-up movie, as the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday hits the 2026 movies that December. While there’s no reason (right now) to think that Brolin will return as either character, when speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the topic of his work as both did come up. After revealing that Thanos was originally supposed to only be a cameo, he added:
Deadpool 2, I was like, 'I'm glad it was one experience.' The Thanos thing, if they called me in London right now, and said 'Let's do this,' I'd be like 'I'll be there tomorrow.'
Brolin didn’t go into details about why he, seemingly, holds Thanos so close to his heart that he’d be willing to drop everything, pull on those motion-capture pajamas again and play the Big Bad. However, it sounds like his love for former Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. (who’s starring in Doomsday as Doctor Doom) and the Russo brothers has a lot to do with it. He continued:
I talk to Downey probably four to six times a year. I talk to the Russos probably four to six times a week. I mean, I talk to Joe a lot.
The Oscar nominee explained that he and Joe Russo are embarking on a business endeavor together, but noted his fondness for the siblings, saying, “I love both of them. I think they’re amazing.” So, when he was asked about possibly being able to bring Thanos back (which has been rumored) in some way, Brolin confirmed that he has complete faith in the Russos’ ability to make such a shocking turn of events work within the story they’re now building. Brolin said:
Of course, they're going to come up with something really fun. I mean, who knows? Who knows? That was a ten-year-in-the-building kind of thing, and that was its own kind of bookended deal. And I don't know what they're going to do, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I think they do that very, very, very well.
Though it would be severely premature to get excited about the idea of Brolin’s Thanos returning to the MCU, at least we know that he’s down for the opportunity if it arises.
