Everything Revealed About Thanos’ Backstory In The MCU

Here’s everything we know about Thanos’ backstory in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First introduced in the mid-credits scene for The Avengers, the Mad Titan was set up to be the biggest villain the Avengers would face. However, the clash between them didn’t happen right away. Marvel Studios slowly built toward Thanos with a small role in Guardians of the Galaxy and an appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s post-credits.

The proper arrival of Thanos came in 2018 with Avengers: Infinity War. In the lead up to the movie, those involved with the film touted Thanos as the lead character. While some were skeptical of this claim, it’s true that a great deal of Infinity War revolves around Thanos’ mission. He manages to successfully gather all six Infinity Stones by the end of the movie so he could “rebalance” the universe, with the snap of the Infinity Gauntlet wiping out half of all life. The Avengers may have failed to stop him, but Avengers: Infinity War made good on the promise that Thanos was a villain unlike any that the MCU’s heroes had faced before. Not only did he win (at first), but Thanos’ actions and motivations were thoroughly explained and somewhat understandable, making him one of the MCU’s greatest villains to date.

As great as Thanos was, his time with the MCU has seemingly come to an end. Avengers: Endgame saw Thor chop off Thanos’ head just a few minutes into the movie. A version of Thanos from another reality in 2014 traveled through time to fight the Avengers again, but even he was dispatched by Iron Man’s heroic snap. However, there are rumors that Thanos could appear at some point in Eternals and the 7,000-year story it spans. Thanos’ journey in the MCU has primarily been told with the focus on his last six years. That isn’t a lot of time to explore a character who has been around for much longer, and Marvel even de-canonized a book that told Thanos’ backstory. Nonetheless, the MCU has still managed to reveal a few critical details about Thanos’ backstory over time.

Thanos’ Childhood on Titan

Thanos is believed to be born around 1,000 years ago in the MCU’s timeline. He is the son of A’Lars, a powerful member of the Titans (potential offshoots of Eternals), according to Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War. Thanos provided a glimpse of what his life was like as a child by using the Reality Stone to change the look of Titan momentarily during Infinity War too. The version of Titan shown was a thriving planet with rich scenery and advanced technology. It has also been teased that, just like in the comics, Thanos looks different than the prototypical Titan, as more human-looking people appeared to be on Titan before.

If we believe the MCU is sticking to the source material, Thanos’ physical look caused some separation between him and other Titans. Thanos still cared greatly for the well-being of his planet and its people, but it is believed that they were not as welcoming to him. At some point, Thanos came to understand that the growing population of Titan would be its downfall unless something were done to stop it. He proposed to kill half of Titan’s citizens so that the entire race would not die. The leaders of Titan did not listen to his warning, though, leaving Thanos to watch as the planet and his people died around him for years to come until he was the last living Titan.

Thanos’ Plan To Wipe Out Half The Universe

After seeing what happened to Titan, Thanos understood that the same fate would fall to all planets, and eventually the universe, if he did not intervene. It then became his goal to do to the universe what he was not allowed to do on Titan and kill half of the population of every planet in the galaxy. This set him on a path of galactic conquest, but he couldn’t do it alone. Thanos needed an army to accomplish this goal, and this is how he came into power of the Chitauri, Sakaaran, and Outrider armies. Thanos spent years traveling across the galaxy to “save” other planets from Titan’s fate, gaining a reputation as one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

Thanos’ Children (& How He Trained Them)

Thanos’ intergalactic conquest eventually saw him use his victories to increase his power. The Mad Titan decided on some occasions (but certainly not all) to take one orphaned child from each of the planets that he decimated. These children became his, and he trained them to be useful pawns in his overall plan. This part of his plan saw him adopt Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, and Proxima Midnight. The four of them are the earliest known members of Thanos’ “family.” After an unspecified amount of time later, Thanos took Gamora from her homeworld of Zen-Whoberi after he wiped out half of the Zehoberei people. He also presumably brought Nebula under his wing around the same time.

As the children of Thanos, all of them were forced to undergo extensive training in combat and tactics to better serve the Mad Titan during his conquests. There isn’t much known about what he did to train Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, and Proxima Midnight. Still, they presumably went through a similar experience as Gamora and Nebula. The two of them were tested repeatedly by fighting one another, with Gamora always coming out on top. As Nebula explained in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, every time Gamora beat her, Thanos ordered another part of her to be replaced with a mechanical implant.

Thanos’ Infinity Stones Quest Begins

After going planet to planet, Thanos figured out that his plan needed to change if it was ever going to be achieved. He turned his sights on the Infinity Stones as the ultimate source of power that could do what he wanted on an unprecedented scale. It isn’t clear when exactly he begins searching for the Infinity Stones, but we do know that Thanos had an early victory by obtaining the Mind Stone. The MCU hasn’t revealed how or when the Mad Titan came into possession of his first Infinity Stone, but it is an important milestone for him nonetheless.

With his quest to obtain all the Infinity Stones now beginning, Thanos comes to gain some essential allies in a short amount of time. The Other became one of his trusted advisers and played a crucial role in monitoring Loki’s attempt to get the Space Stone for Thanos. Thanos also began working with Ronan the Accuser to find other Infinity Stones while he continued to decimate planets in his own search. Part of this alliance saw Thanos lend Ronan the talents of Nebula and Gamora to aid him in finding the Power Stone. Even though this partnership backfired on Thanos – with Ronan keeping the Power Stone for himself and Gamora turning on Thanos once they acquired it – it pushed him to do the collecting himself eventually.