1. Andre Braugher
A favorite if perhaps unexpected pick for the role, Andre Braugher has been stealing scenes since 1989. He may have started off in Kojak, but it was his role as the aggressively intellectual, morally uncompromising Detective Frank Pembleton in NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street that gained him an Emmy (and another nomination), providing a showcase for the steely resolve that marks each of his performances. He also played the lead, Captain Marcus Chaplin, in ABC’s quickly-cancelled Last Resort the previous year; in 2010, he voiced Darkseid in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and, three years before that, played General Hager in the widely disregarded Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surface.
In short, Braugher’s credentials are not in question, and, like Harry J. Lennix in Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel, he demands consideration for meatier roles. Braugher’s Thanos would be a manipulative, shadowy presence capable of tremendous fury, unlike Benicio Del Toro or any of the others on this list. Like with everything else he’s in, Braugher would, simply put, elevate the part beyond mere villainy.
Do you think Benicio Del Toro’s supposed casting is definitive or would you rather see someone else in a quest for the Infinity Gems? Tom Waits too diminutive? Arnold Schwarzenegger too off-the-wall? Well, what would you suggest..?
