DC's Legends of Tomorrow rarely takes things seriously, and the trailer for the show's upcoming fifth season adds a Mister Rogers spoof to add to its history of skewering entertainment like The A-Team, Charlie's Angels, and the Muppets. Almost anything is fair game, as the Season 5 trailer proves by sneaking in what may very well be a nod to one of the goofiest Avengers fan theories out there: the "Thanus" theory.
For those unfamiliar with "Thanus," let's break down the concept. If a shrinking hero like Ant-Man were to somehow enter Thanos to try and defeat him from the inside -- perhaps through his, uh, tailpipe -- then grow to full size, it would tear the supervillain apart. It’s crazy enough it might just work, right? It didn’t happen, but fan theories are nothing if not persistent, with Josh Brolin, Paul Rudd and even Neil deGrasse Tyson weighing in, and some parts of the Avengers fandom continuing to speculate on whether it would work.
We can't prove it until we have more footage, but Legends of Tomorrow seems to have done its own take on that theory. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, Ray Palmer suddenly appears in the middle of an explosion of gore. It's less than a second, so a lot of details are missing, but it seems similar. The Atom suit is lit up, and the sound effects seem consistent with his growing and shrinking. We can’t tell who or what he just killed -- the first frame is already a ball of gore -- or which entrance he took to get inside, but it’s not difficult to make the connection to the Avengers theory.
Taking a closer look at Ray around 0:37, he’s clearly just gotten himself out of a really tight spot. He’s clenching up, probably shocked that whatever he just did worked and didn’t kill him. He looks scared -- like he just fought dirty to get out of a really messy situation. He’s also standing upright, which he wouldn’t be if he came in another way. If you go in through the mouth, you’ll be sideways or upside down, unless you turn around in the stomach. If he’d started at the bottom, he’d already be upright when he got bigger, rather than landing in some awkward position.
It wouldn’t be the first time Ray has flown into someone, either. In what was somehow the second-strangest plotline in the Season 3 episode "Guest Starring John Noble," Ray flew into Norah Darhk’s ear as part of their gambit to trap her and Mallus. The plotline largely stayed clean, except for many misunderstandings as Ray kept describing his plan as "once I’m inside Norah." From that, we know the show is already willing to go at least a little bit in that direction.
This wouldn’t even be the goofiest thing they’ve done on this show, either. Season 3 ended with “The Good, The Bad, and The Cuddly," where Helen of Troy and Jonah Hex distract Julius Caesar and Blackbeard in a battle in the Wild West while the Legends merge into a Tickle-Me-Elmo rip-off that kills a demon in a puff of heart-shaped smoke. After that, flying up someone’s butt to make them explode seems plausible. Give Ray the chance to live out his dream of taking a shot at blowing up something scary through an exposed exhaust port. He deserves it before leaving the show.
Are we making a big deal out of a big nothing? Maybe, but Legends of Tomorrow has a history of going with pretty stupid ideas. For the show that gave us Beebo, testing out a really dumb fan theory about a different comic book franchise feels right up its alley.
Returning on Jan. 21, 2020, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow stars Caity Lotz, Dominic Purcell, Brandon Routh, Nick Zano, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Tala Ashe, Matt Ryan, Jes Macallan and Courtney Ford.