Forget About the Next Thanos, Marvel’s Galactus “Disappointment” Is What the MCU Needs More Of

Six years on from his defeat in Avengers: Endgame, Thanos continues to define discussions around MCU villains. He remains the greatest foe that Marvel’s heroes have faced, and the benchmark against which all other bad guys will be measured. But more than that, he has laid out what is now the expected blueprint for an Avengers villain. It is not simply enough to be a compelling antagonist, but there has to be a bigger plan, an overarching idea that can span multiple phases and movies.

Who will be the next Thanos has been a point of conversation since before the Mad Titan had even been killed, and very clearly one that took place not only among MCU fans, but internally at Marvel Studios as well. It was supposed to be Kang the Conqueror, as he was setup as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, featuring in several movies and TV shows en route to facing the Avengers. But after Jonathan Majors was dropped due to assault charges, Marvel has pivoted to Doctor Doom, who will (at least) be in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

In between them, though, was Galactus, another villain where there were hopes of something bigger (and not just because the Devourer of Worlds was smaller than expected in The Fantastic Four: First Steps). In terms of powers, he’s another level-up, so he certainly could be an Avengers-level threat across multiple movies. And there were some hopes that might happen, and disappointment at his one-movie defeat (for now) by the Fantastic Four. But that shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing: it’s what the MCU needs more of.

Marvel Just Needs Good Villains (Whether They Return Or Not)

Galactus was the perfect choice for Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot. He is, along with Doctor Doom, one of the team’s two premier villains, and one who poses a fascinating threat because he’s a higher cosmic being, something that simply “is” rather than someone who is evil. He requires scientific smarts to defeat as much as brute power. But he’s also a giant threat, and there are no guarantees in the MCU, especially not anymore. The movie had one shot – it needed to convince people Marvel’s First Family could work on the big screen after multiple failures – so it was right to use that on Galactus.

This is the approach Marvel needs more of, even with the Avengers. The focus should be on great villains for the story at hand. If it can lead to something bigger, wonderful, but if not, you’ve at least told a strong tale. This isn’t really any different to how things started with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Loki in The Avengers had been in one movie prior, wasn’t setup as some major foe, and he’s still one of the best antagonists they’ve faced. Ultron had issues, but none of them were related to a lack of setup or follow-up appearances, but more simply the writing and production issues with Age of Ultron.

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Even Thanos wasn’t originally some grand plan. He was put in that first movie’s post-credits scene to explain where Loki got the scepter, but it wasn’t known then that the Infinity Saga was what was going to happen (hence why the “court death” line was never properly paid off).

Now more than ever, Marvel needs to focus on quality, and while having a vision helps, having good movies is even better, especially when plans seem more likely to fail. It needs to get back to a level of consistency it’s lacked since Endgame, and maybe then it can start thinking five steps ahead, but until that point I’d rather see more Galactuses than more Kangs, because not every villain needs four or five movies to have an impact.

If Galactus himself does return, that could be excellent. There’s certainly potential with it – and more so for the Fantastic Four again rather than the Avengers. There are decades of comic stories it can draw on for inspiration, and given they just barely scraped past him, it can still bring high stakes. But if we never see Galactus again? Well, we got a good story with him (and the Silver Surfer) involved, and that’s something no other Fantastic Four movie had ever delivered.

I’d like to see this approach continue with Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, too, where nothing is left off the table in the hopes of him coming back in the future. He is not the next Thanos, because he was only set up this year, in one movie. He isn’t the overarching villain of the entire Multiverse Saga, even if he will be the one who is there for its grand finale. But that’s not a problem.

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What’s forgotten is that so much of Thanos works in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame even without what came before it: we fully understand his motivations, his backstory, and the threat he poses. Doom may not match that, but it’s something that can be achieved just in those movies with good writing, much more so than longevity. I’d actually like to see the Avengers have more one-off threats and missions, rather than everything need to feel like a culmination, which could lead to better storytelling because it’s not trying to bring together so many disparate strands, and is perhaps something we could see more of in Phase 7, but let’s get through Doomsday and Secret Wars first.

Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18th, 2026. Avengers: Secret Wars hits theaters on December 17th, 2027. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is available to stream on Disney+.

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