Comic-Con 2022: Marvel's Jim Starlin Says Thanos' Popularity Has "Surprised the Hell" Out of Him

07/25/2022 06:50 pm EDT

Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thanos has become a wildly popular character. Despite literally snapping half of life in the entire universe out of existence, the Mad Titan has become very much a household name with character not only the center of plenty of hilarious memes but appearing on merch and more and there are even fans who want to see Thanos continue to appear in movies and projects within the MCU. But while the idea of Thanos' popularity may be a little surprising considering his level of villainy, there's no one more surprised by it all than his creator, Jim Starlin. Starlin told ComicBook.com that Thanos' popularity has "surprised the hell" out of him.

"I mean, all these strange esoteric characters that they would never touch because back when they started it was strictly Batmans, Spider-Man, you know the heroes," Starlin said. "And the fact that Thanos has gotten as big as he has, quite frankly, surprised the hell out of me because I always thought he was just too weird and esoteric and apparently wrong. That's why I don't make movies."

While Thanos has become a wildly popular character, as for the MCU it seems that they are moving forward from that chapter and are heading for another major villain — Kang. During Marvel Studios' Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend, Marvel revealed the path forward for the MCU with the revelation that Phase 4 will conclude with the upcoming She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will kick off Phase 5 which will see the arrival of Jonathan Majors' Kang.

"It comes down to the cast and with Jonathan Majors, who I think took over the Hall H stage, you know, in the three minutes he was up there," Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told us. "It's amazing, and I said to him there's nobody's shoulders I'd rather be putting the multiverse saga on than his. It's really impressive what Jonathan Majors is able to do and all the different incarnations, variants, if you will, of Kang that we will see him do. It's really pretty cool."

He added, "What I love is that he's totally different from Thanos. That he is completely different. That it's not just how about there's a bigger purple guy with a helmet? That's not what Kang is. Kang is a very different type of villain and the fact that he is many, many different characters is what's most exciting and most differentiates him."

What do you think about Starlin's comments? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.

Latest News