Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd is beginning to have doubts that the fan-backed “Thanus” plan would have worked in stopping the Mad Titan from acquiring all six Infinity Stones.
What did fans want Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man to do to stop Thanos?
Thanus, a portmanteau of the words “Thanos” and “anus,” is a popular fan theory that emerged in 2017 ahead of the release of Avengers: Infinity War. The theory claims that the Avengers could easily stop Thanos by having Rudd’s Ant-Man shrink down and go up the villain’s butt. The pint-sized superhero would then enlarge himself from the inside, causing Thanos to explode.
In the years since the Thanus theory went viral, Rudd has repeatedly addressed whether the plan would have worked, most recently during a chat with ComicBook.com. However, after previously being on board with Thanus, the actor is unsure if Ant-Man would have succeeded.
“I often wonder, though, could he really have stopped Thanos in that way? Because didn’t he, at that point, have the Space Stone or whatever?” pondered Rudd, alluding to how Thanos could have seemingly stopped Ant-Man’s attack with the stones he had in his position.
Rudd was speaking to ComicBook to promote his new movie Death of a Unicorn with his co-star Jenna Ortega. After Ortega appeared visibly confused about Thanus, Rudd attempted to explain the theory to her. “Do you know what we’re talking about? There was a theory — going against Thanos, why didn’t Ant-Man just … instead of Thanos, it was ‘Thanus,’ go up Thanos and then expand,” the actor explained, using his hands to mime what Ant-Man would be doing to Thanos.
You can watch Rudd explain the Thanus theory to Ortega below:
It’s unlikely that Rudd’s Ant-Man will ever have the chance to test the Thanus theory out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe given that the Mad Titan, portrayed by Josh Brolin, was killed (twice) in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Thor chopped the head off of the original Thanos during the opening scene of Endgame, while Iron Man used the Infinity Stones to take care of a younger variant by turning him and his army to dust during the movie’s climatic final battle.
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Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, as well as the Ant-Man trilogy, are available to stream on Disney+.
