Mysteries of The Mad Titan: 9 Questions About Thanos, Answered

Before Avengers: Infinity War came along last year, Thanos was a relatively unknown villain. He was iconic among the comic book community, but movie audiences hadn’t seen much of him. A few moviegoers knew him as the purple guy from the post-credits scenes, while others didn’t know him at all.

But then Josh Brolin came in and spent two and a half hours demolishing the Avengers before snapping his fingers and wiping out half of all life in the universe. Suffice to say, audiences weren’t forgetting about him any time soon. As much as we’ve seen of Thanos, he remains a mysterious character. So, ahead of Avengers: Endgame, here are 9 Questions About Thanos, Answered.

9 Does Thanos need to eat or sleep?

Thanos can eat regular food and has been known to enjoy meals in the comics, but he doesn’t actually need to. As an Eternal, Thanos is able to nourish himself by synthesizing cosmic energy. He’s a busy guy who doesn’t always have time to stop off for soup and a sandwich, so it helps that he’s able to absorb energy from space and metabolize it.

It’s unclear if he needs to sleep, but when he had a farm in the comics, he had a bed, so it seems as though he might sleep as well. Wiping out half of humanity and wielding the power of the Infinity Stones must be pretty tiring.

8 How can Thanos speak English?

There are a number of theories about this. One is that he has an All-Speak like the Asgardians that allows him to communicate with all races and people of all languages. Another is that he has some kind of universal translator, which is also used by the Guardians of the Galaxy to speak to one another. According to James Gunn, these translators translate the language going in and also the language going out, allowing Marvel’s cosmic characters, like Thanos, to understand and communicate with each other.

One comical theory is that one of the magical stones in Thanos’ possession is the Rosetta Stone. Some fans even believed he learned English once he recognized the Avengers as worthy foes. The simplest answer is that it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a movie. Still, it’s fun to speculate.

7 Does Thanos love Gamora?

The fact that Thanos sacrificed Gamora to get his hands on the Soul Stone does seem to suggest that he doesn’t really care about her. But you have to take into account that it was a very powerful stone whose power he was convinced he needed to save the universe from itself, and he did seem deeply emotional when he made the sacrifice.

He didn’t have to take her under his wing when he came to her world, but he liked her spunk, so he kept her around and raised her to be the bitter, cynical, fierce warrior we see today. In his own way, while she was resentful towards him and didn’t believe he loved her, he did care about her.

6 Where did Thanos get the Power Stone from?

Since Avengers: Infinity War had a lot of characters to service and a lot of ground to cover, the movie couldn’t go through the motions of showing how Thanos acquired all six Infinity Stones. So, a lot of fans were left wondering how he got a hold of the Power Stone in the first place.

As it turns out, he sent his army – the Chitauri – to get it from Xandar, where the Power Stone was being kept after the Guardians of the Galaxy acquired it from Ronan the Accuser. The Chitauri is the army the Avengers defeated by sending a nuclear missile through a wormhole into their stronghold.

5 Could Odin have killed Thanos?

A close-up shot of Anthony Hopkins' Odin

Unfortunately, right before Thanos showed up and knocked his evil plan into fifth gear, Odin passed away. He’s one of the only Marvel characters who would’ve been powerful enough to take down Thanos. It seems as though, now that Captain Marvel has showed up, the Avengers still have a character on their side who can defeat Thanos and the world will be fine.

However, it’s fun to speculate. So, could Odin have killed Thanos? We saw him kill a dark elf in a single move with his spear Gungnir in Thor: The Dark World. Killing Thanos would be harder than killing a dark elf, but he probably could’ve managed it.

4 When did Thanos ignore his destiny before?

On Vormir, when Thanos was tasked with sacrificing Gamora to acquire the Soul Stone, he told her, “I ignored my destiny once. I cannot do that again. Even for you.” So, when exactly did he ignore his destiny before this? Well, it was on his home planet of Titan.

He suggested killing off half the population in order for the resources to be able to go around, but they called him a madman and kicked him off the planet. They didn’t listen and exactly what he thought would happen eventually happened to Titan and his species went extinct. So, he ignored his destiny when he let Titan die. He wanted to save the universe because he couldn’t save his own planet.

3 Can Thanos be killed?

There’s a lot to suggest that Thanos can be killed; it’s just really hard. Stormbreaker appears to seriously wound Thanos after Thor launches it into his shoulder, and then the Mad Titan suggests it would’ve killed him if the Norse god had hit him in the head.

After Gamora stabs him in the neck, she seems to think he’s dead. Iron Man manages to cut his skin and he’s completely restrained by the Avengers on Titan. Plus, when Nebula stowed away on Thanos’ ship and tried to kill him, he says she came close to actually doing it. So, there’s a lot to suggest that he can, in fact, be killed – it’s just super difficult.

2 Is Thanos immortal?

In the comics, Thanos is immortal. Death herself kicks Thanos out of the Realm of Death, which grants him immortality. However, Death doesn’t exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as far as we know). And even if she does, we know that Thanos hasn’t met her yet, or gone to the Realm of Death, or been granted that immortality.

So, that seems to suggest that he’s not immortal in the MCU – yet. If Death is introduced and that storyline plays out, that’ll be a different story. But until then, it seems as though he does have an expiration date in the movies.

1 Why does Thanos want to kill half of all life in the universe?

Thanos snapping have of the universes population in Avengers Infinity War while Thor watches

Thanos’ master plan in Avengers: Infinity War revolved around his desire to wipe out half of all the life in the universe with the snap of a finger. He even sacrificed the only thing he cared about in the world to accomplish it. But why? Why does he want that?

Well, the plan is taken straight from Jim Starlin’s iconic “Infinity Gauntlet” comic book. In it, his intentions are to woo Death, who he has a crush on. We saw him smile at the prospect of courting Death in the post-credits scene following the first Avengers movie. The theory that Cate Blanchett’s Thor: Ragnarok character Hela’s true identity was Death turned out to be unfounded, but we still don’t know who Katherine Langford is playing in Avengers: Endgame...