Benicio Del Toro Joins Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy; Is He Playing Thanos?

Benicio Del Toro has reportedly joined the upcoming Marvel movie, “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

According to Deadline, the actor is playing a lead role in the outer space action movie.

The actor has reportedly inked a deal for the option to appear in multiple movies, leading to rampant speculation that he’s been tapped to play alien villain Thanos, who was seen in the very last scene of “The Avengers.”

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Benicio joins stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Glenn Close, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker and John C. Reilly in the project

The James Gunn-directed movie tells the story of Peter Quill – also known as Star-Lord – a pilot who ends up in space with a rag tag group of outlaws that includes: Drax the Destroyer (a human resurrected as a warrior bent on killing Thanos), Groot (an alien that resembles a massive walking tree), Gamora (the last living member of her species, who was once was Thanos’ assassin) and Rocket Raccoon (a genetically engineered critter with a love of explosives and weapons).

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“Guardians of the Galaxy” is slated to blast into theaters on August 1, 2014.

— Jesse Spero