As the deadliest villain the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever faced — at least, until Robert Downey Jr. makes his debut as Doctor Doom in next year’s “Avengers: Doomsday” — Thanos has become a modern cinematic icon. Fans of the MCU know and love Josh Brolin as the actor behind the mad titan, who appeared in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” as well as a post-credits scene in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” However, Brolin wasn’t the first actor to bring Thanos to life in the MCU. That honor fell to Damion Poitier.
When Thanos made his first appearance in the MCU, it was a silent cameo in the post-credit’s scene for 2012’s “The Avengers.” His presence having only been hinted at throughout the movie, Thanos was revealed in a single shot. At the time of shooting this brief scene, the MCU’s official Thanos had not been cast, nor his future mapped out. Poitier had worked with director Joss Whedon before and so was drafted in to play Thanos in the short scene.
While Poitier was soon replaced by Brolin, he did go on to appear in another MCU movie, sans the purple makeup. Poitier can be seen in “Captain America: Civil War” as a background character. The actor then made the jump from Marvel movies to a DC television series. In 2019, Poitier appeared on “The Flash” as the classic Green Lantern villain Goldface.
Damion Poitier got his supervillain moment on The Flash
Damion Poitier had a far more substantial role on The CW’s “The Flash,” appearing in multiple episodes over the course of the series’ last five seasons. Introduced in the Season 5 episode “Goldfaced,” Keith Kenyon, aka Goldface, was a powerful gangster running his own black market in Central City. A metahuman, Goldface had the power to control gold and turn any part of his body into the precious metal. He went on to appear in Seasons 6, 8, and 9 of “The Flash” after his debut episode.
In DC comic book continuity, Goldface had originally been an enemy of Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern. His gold complexion and suit in the comics were close enough to yellow to exploit Green Lantern’s weakness to the color. In addition to possessing the ability to control gold, the comic book Goldface wore a suit of gold armor and carried a gold gun, which fired liquid gold he could reshape at will.
In the wake of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Goldface became an enemy to the Guy Gardner Green Lantern for a period, before eventually moving to Central City. Here, Goldface became a nemesis of the Flash. He was also briefly married to fellow supervillain Amunet Black. She also appeared on “The Flash” as the girlfriend of Goldface, where she was played by “The Mandalorian” and “Battlestar Galactica” star Katee Sackhoff.