Post-Credits 'Avengers' Scene: Who's This Thanos Guy?

Marvel has officially released the post-credits scene (not the shawarma one) from The Avengers

. It’s a little surprising to see it surface online, but I guess when your movie tops the $1 billion mark, it’s safe to assume that most people are in on the ‘secret’…

If you remember sitting in the cinema after the movie, seeing this purple, grinning gentlemen appear on the screen and wondering ‘who the hell is that guy’ then you might want to re-watch this… Here we go again, courtesy of Geek Tyrant:

Although this material is nothing new (we actually first discussed it in detail straight after the release of The Avengers in a recap), it might warrant some further explanation, now that the clip has been officially released. In fact, the release of the clip is indicative of the fact that Marvel wants to rouse speculation surrounding a certain menacing purple dude… So, what have we got?

If you’re not familiar with this guy, it’s Thanos. In Greek, his name means death and unsurprisingly, he’s consumed by the desire to destroy and conquer. He has a long and complex history in the Marvel world and first appeared as the creation of Jim Starlin, in the Iron Man #55 comic book from 1973.

The line in the scene about ‘courting death’ is a wink to Marvel fans, as Thanos fell madly in love with the female personification of Death (comics being comics, Death could never just be a concept!) and in an attempt to win her affection, attempted to erase half of all life in the universe with the Infinity Gauntlet. The Gauntlet weapon was spotted in a blink-or-you-miss-it moment in Thor last summer, when it was little more than an easter egg. But this is now widely believed to be the basis of The Avengers 2

, although Marvel is constantly wrestling with how much they can take from comics at the expense of catering to the mainstream audiences. We’ll have to wait and see.

The Gauntlet is currently sitting in Odin’s vault (which first aroused our suspicions that Thanos might play a role in an upcoming Avengers movie) which isn’t exactly impenetrable, if our memories of serve us correctly. Thanos is pretty useless without his weaponlike Thor without his hammerso this could be something to keep in mind when thinking about The Avengers 2.

So, with the official release of this post-credit clip, it looks like our suspicions that Marvel has chosen the villain for the next movie have been confirmed. What are your thoughts on the matter?

We originally presumed that if Thanos was going to make an appearance in The Avengers then he’d have been completely CGI-ed in. But as it happens, director Joss Whedon actually cast an actor to play the part. Who is it? It’s Damion Poitier of and fame. In the first Avengers movie, his cast title is simply ‘Man #1’, but we now have confirmation that Thanos will be played by Poitier in either the upcoming Avengers 2 or Marvel’s other exciting project, … Can’t wait!