When it was announced earlier this week that Benicio Del Toro was cast in Guardians of the Galaxy, it seems like fandom as one wished that he was tapped to play Thanos. However, sources say he was chosen to play a another villain that everyone appeared to forget was in the film.
ComicBookMovie is quoting a “very reliable source” inside Marvel that says Del Toro will be playing Taneleer Tivan, the Elder of the Universe known as The Collector.
The Collector’s involvement with the film was revealed back in April when Ophelia Lovibond’s casting was announced. Lovibond was rumored to be playing the assistant to, if not the daughter of, The Collector.
And if the film version of the Collector skews closely to the comic book version, Del Toro’s rumored “playing a character that is built to be part of future Marvel films” would still hold true. The Collector was gifted with the ability to see the rise of dangerous individuals in the future, and use that knowledge to either collect people and things to fight those individuals or repopulate whatever species that individual eradicates. He could very well have foreseen the rise of Thanos and might appear throughout the rest of the Marvel films, collecting heroes as he goes.
