For the longest time, the MCU suffered from a severe lack of compelling villains. Then the Mad Titan Thanos appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, and suddenly the franchise had an amazing complex villain that rivaled Darth Vader in terms of villainy and charisma. While Thanos died in Avengers: Endgame, Jim Starlin, who co-created the character for Marvel Comics, recently hinted during a Phase Zero podcast that the Mad Titan might show up for a quick cameo in the upcoming film Eternals.

"I believe I heard some rumors that he's [Thanos] coming back in different things. I think I've heard...confirmed from Marvel Studios is that he's going to be...at least a guest appearance inside the Eternals, so he's gonna be around. This is not anything I'm making up. This is something I've read somewhere."

It would make a lot of sense for Thanos to show up in Eternals, however briefly. The history of the Mad Titan is deeply interconnected with the main cast of the movie in the comics. The Eternals are a race of superhumans that were created on Earth thousands of years ago by an ancient godly race known as the Celestials.

The same celestials were also responsible for creating the race that Thanos belongs to, and so the human Eternals can be said to be the cousins of Thanos. Additionally, scrapped artwork from the Infinity War sage showed that a younger Thanos was supposed to show up in the movies at some point. While that did not happen, the callback to young Thanos can now be featured in Eternals.

On a purely commercial level, it makes a lot of sense to have one of the most popular characters from the MCU show up in Eternals, which features an entirely new cast of characters. Last year also, Starlin had hinted that the Mad Titan's MCU journey has likely not ended until the franchise has flogged that particular dead horse for additional cash.

"[Marvel studios] made a shit load of money off [Thanos]. So I don't see them retiring him anytime soon. Comic book characters tend to have an extended lifespan beyond the actors who work on them. I'm half expecting to see much more Thanos down the line... The way they handled him, I know I thought they did a terrific job. Russos and [the writers Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely, they had a really great feel for the character. They didn't follow the letter of it. They certainly followed the spirit of it just faithfully. How can I say anything wrong about it at this point?"

Directed by Chloé Zhao, Eternals stars Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Barry Keoghan as Druig and Kit Harington as Dane Whitman/Black Knight. The film arrives in theaters on November 5. This news was disclosed at the Phase Zero podcast.