Marvel's First Thanos Actor Played A DC Comics Villain On The Flash
While general audiences remember Josh Brolin's Thanos snapping away half the universe in "Avengers: Infinity War," there was an actor before him who played the Mad Titan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the mid-credits scene of "The Avengers," Thanos makes a brief (and grinning) appearance; he's portrayed by actor Damion Poitier here. It would be the first and only time that Poitier would play the character in the MCU.
The actor received a more substantial arc over at Marvel's main rival and one of the best shows in the Arrowverse. In "The Flash," Poitier portrays the villainous Keith Kenyon, aka Goldface. Originally, in DC Comics, Goldface serves as a rogue for Green Lantern, but he fits well into the villain of the week format in "The Flash" as a mobster who holds the ability to turn his body parts into gold. Now, that has to be the most lucrative superpower yet!
Poitier appears as Goldface for six episodes across various seasons of "The Flash," which allows for a decent character arc to evolve and establish him as one of the better B-villains on the show.
Damion Poitier didn't know he was playing Thanos in The Avengers
When Damion Poitier auditioned for "The Avengers," he didn't have a clue that it would be for the part of Thanos. All he knew was that he was listed as "Man #1" on the call sheet, but he had his own ideas of who the character could have been. "I honestly thought I was going to be [the Super-Skrull] Kl'rt or 'The Avengers' version of him — there were quite a few variants on that theme in 'Secret Invasion,'" Poitier told Comic Book Movie in 2012. "Then, shock at the spoiler, revving of mind and connecting of dots about the shape and future shape of the Marvel U."
Did Poitier expect to continue being the Thanos actor and to shape the entire MCU timeline? According to the actor, that was never promised. "Initially, they just hired me as a facial figure," he told Blackfilm.com in 2014. "In terms of moving forward, I knew that was a question of what happened in between I got it and the next time they would need it. Unfortunately, we didn't get the exposure we wanted in the interim, but it's all good. We got good exposure from that scene and we'll keep moving from there."
Later on, Poitier's MCU journey would continue with a minor role in "Captain America: Civil War" (one of the best movies in the entire franchise).