The only “weak” link in Marvel amazing Cinematic Universe has been the villain factor. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Loki. But compared to The Joker or Magneto, baddies like Red Skull and Malekith are just bad. That may change with the biggest antagonist of them all (at least the one Disney has the rights to use in a motion picture), Thanos.

The purple giant was seen and heard in the first post-credits scene of “The Avengers.” At the “Iron-Man 3” Joss Whedon told me the following about this foe:

“Thanos is more powerful [than The Avengers]. He is so powerful he is not someone you can just try out and punch him. Like he did in the comics, you want him to be threading through the universe and to save the big finale for the big finally. But he is definitely part of what I have going on.”

Thanos-Guardians

To me, that immediately translated as: “You will see Thanos here and there but he won’t be the true main antagonist until Avengers 3.” Then we learned that Ultron in “The Avengers 2” and Ronan the Accuser in “Guardians of the Galaxy” were going to be the evil forces to reckon with.

Today, Latino Review broke the news (later confirmed by other outlets) that Josh Brolin will -at least- voice ‘The Mad Titan’ in the upcoming galactic adventure directed by James Gunn. At first glance it looks like a good fit. But the question is “why now?”

Any unknown actor or voice talent could have been hired to play a small part in “Guardians” and “Avengers 2.” To me -and what follows is pure speculation- the fact that a well known actor that vaguely resembles the facial features of Thanos has been cast now is to secure the right man for “the big finale” Whedon was talking about.

I am sure that Marvel will use motion-capture to bring the colossal adversary to life in “Avengers 3,” like they did with Ruffalo’s Hulk. There could also be plans to give Thanos a more human-like appearance in some moments and show more of the actor as a disguise of the monster.

In any case, in my opinion, getting Brolin now isn’t really about these Phase Two films, it is just a matter of consistency for when Phase Three and the final battle arrive. What do you think?