After his appearance in Infinity War, he became a key figure in popular culture and memes, making appearances in a variety of other media. Thanos is often credited as one of the MCU's best villains, as well as one of the greatest film villains of all time. The character has been well received by critics and fans alike, with Brolin winning multiple awards for his performance. A new facial capture application called Masquerade was created for Infinity War and Endgame using machine learning. Thanos' appearance changed drastically over the course of his appearances as advances in CGI and motion capture technology allowed for better capture of Brolin's facial features. Several versions of Thanos from alternate realities in the MCU multiverse also appear in Endgame, the Disney+ animated series What If.? (2021–present), and the Phase Four film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Thanos is a key figure in the 23 films that make up the MCU's Infinity Saga, having appeared in five of its films, most notably Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Five years later, an alternate version of Thanos from 2014 time travels to 2023 to battle the Avengers once again, but is killed by Tony Stark. After escaping to the Garden and destroying the Stones, he is eventually killed by Thor. With the help of his adopted children, Thanos fights against the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and their allies, in the Infinity War, succeeds in assembling the Stones, and disintegrates half of all life in the universe in an event that is known as the Blip. To do this, he sets out to obtain the six Infinity Stones, cosmic gems with the power to achieve his goal. He is depicted as an alien warlord from the doomed planet Titan with a universe-spanning agenda to wipe out half of all life to stabilize overpopulation and prevent what he views as life's inevitable extinction. Thanos is a fictional character portrayed primarily by Josh Brolin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise, based on the Marvel Comics supervillain of the same name.