Proving that you can’t conquer (obliterate?) the world alone, Josh Brolin’s almighty Thanos will be bringing one or two villainous friends to the party when Avengers: Infinity War checks into theaters in May.
In his quest to round up all six Infinity Stones, the Mad Titan is expected to seek the assistance of the Black Order, a ragtag group of space oddities that all hold one thing in common: their bloodline can be traced back to Thanos.
That’s right, not unlike Nebula and Gamora – Karen Gillan and Zoe Saldana, respectively – the Black Order are the adopted children of Thanos, and wage war against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in his name. There are four in total (read: Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Cull Obsidian), but some recent promo art now indicates that there may actually be one more.
As you can see in the gallery below, photos of a bunch of new merchandise have surfaced and most interesting of it all is the Infinity War mug, which features a few of the film’s villains. Namely, Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight. But aside from those two, there’s a third, mysterious baddie underneath them, and fans can’t quite figure out who it might be.
One theory is that it’s actually Black Dwarf, the fifth member of the Black Order. Although, as some have pointed out, he doesn’t really resemble the character and if Dwarf was indeed in the film, why would Marvel keep that a secret?
Another idea is that this fella is an Outrider, a “race of genetically engineered creatures used by Thanos.” It’s thought that the Outriders will help the Mad Titan with his invasion of Wakanda and though this mystery villain doesn’t resemble them that much, he could still be part of their race.
Either way, though, whether he’s Black Dwarf, an Outrider or something else entirely, we don’t imagine he’ll have a very big role in the film. As it is, it’s looking unlikely that the pic will provide meaty material for the likes of Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Cull Obsidian, with many assuming that they’ll just be reduced to forgettable cannon fodder when the lights go down.
We hope that’s not the case, of course, but with how busy Avengers: Infinity War is set to be and how many characters and plotlines it needs to juggle, it’d be surprising if Joe and Anthony Russo find time to give Thanos’ Black Order much of the spotlight. Wouldn’t you agree?