MCU fans just realising Thanos was recast

Did you know Josh Brolin wasn’t the first actor who portrayed Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Probably.

But did you know that same actor actually popped up several more times throughout the franchise? Because I sure as hell didn’t until now.

You remember at the end of The Avengers, when that mid-credits scene rolled and Thanos turned to the screen and wryly smiled at the prospect of messing up the MCU’s greatest heroes?

Yeah well that was actually a guy called Damion Poitier, who went uncredited in the film for his role as Thanos.

We wouldn’t actually see Brolin in the role until the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, which means that the uncredited scene at the end of The Avengers was the first and last time Poitier ever actually portrayed The Mad Titan.

Over in the comments on the post in the r/marvelstudios subreddit, fans are mostly just waffling about how incredible Poitier looked in the role.

“I preferred his look to the Brolin Thanos by a lot,” commented user rhaegar_tldragon.

“One look at that chin and I see why they picked him,” replied user PetyrsLittleFinger.

The bit that surprised me about all of this is that Poitier actually continued to show up in the MCU here and there, although you’d be forgiven for not noticing him.

As user Motor-Anteater-8965 points out in the same thread, Poitier also worked as a stunt actor in both Captain America: Civil War and Thor: The Dark World. He even showed up next to Crossbones during a sequence in Captain America: Civil War’s opening, too.

Nice to know Disney kept working with him following his brief role as Thanos, although I wouldn’t feel too bad for Poitier regardless.

His role as Thanos was always likely just as a placeholder, and I assume he was told as much before shooting the scene.

Gotta wonder how different this guy’s career would be if they kept him in the role, though. We’d probably be seeing that incredible chin plastered across billboards as we speak.