Is Thanos an Eternal, and if so, why does he look different from the rest? Here's what you need to know about Thanos' connection to the Eternals.

Thanos' origin story is deeply connected to the Eternals in Marvel Comics, and that relationship could translate to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics, Thanos actually is an Eternal. Some of Thanos' backstory has already been explored in Avengers: Infinity War, but Marvel's Eternals movie could dive even further into his history (even though the character was killed off in Avengers: Endgame).

Based on characters created by the legendary Marvel Comics writer and artist Jack Kirby, Eternals will tell the story of a group of ancient immortals who have lived on Earth for thousands of years. All this time, this mysterious race of super-powered beings have somehow managed to keep their existence a secret from mankind. In the movie, the Eternals will embark on a mission given to them by their creators - the Celestials- to battle the Deviants, who in the comics are their greatest enemies. The upcoming cosmic epic will introduce audiences to at least ten members of their race, including Ikaris (Richard Madden), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Sersi (Gemma Chan), and more.

Related: Marvel Will Have To Change One Of The Eternals' Powers

Eternals is expected to delve into the history of the MCU by featuring scenes that take place over a thousand years ago. Places like Babylon will be making an appearance. Other eras could be utilized as well, and considering that Eternals is sure to touch on the distant past, the movie could be a way for Marvel to make use of deceased characters, with Thanos being one of them. After all, Thanos has strong ties to them in the comics. Thanos' backstory could be expanded on in the movie. But what exactly is the connection between Thanos and the Eternals? He doesn't look like them. Here's what you need to know about the relationship between this ancient race of immortals and the Mad Titan.

The Eternals were created thousands of years ago by the god-like Celestials. After visiting Earth and experimenting with human DNA, the Celestials created two off-shoots of humanity, the Eternals and the Deviants. The Eternals resemble humans but are gifted with immortality; the Deviants, on the other hand, were a colossal failure. They have unstable DNA, and are monstrous in appearance. They also don't share the immortality of Eternals. Since they couldn't blend in with humans, they constructed subterranean cities for themselves and went into hiding.

The Eternals ultimately established a base on Earth. Later, the leader of the Eternals, Kronos, conducted an experiment with cosmic energy, but it went wrong, and the spread of the energy altered the genes of the Eternals permanently. For this reason, the Eternals and all their descendants possess a wide array of superpowers. So their race survived the accident, but Kronos was no longer in any condition to lead. Since his two sons, A'lars and Zuras, couldn't agree on who should be his successor, they decided to split the Eternals into two branches. Zuras founded a new city and became the leader of the Olympian Eternals, while A'lars left Earth and took a large number of the Eternals with him. A'lars traveled to Saturn's moon, Titan, and started a new colony there. His gathering of Eternals became known as the Titanian Eternals.

While on Titan, A'lars fathered a son named Thanos with an Eternal woman named Sui-San. Sui-San was actually on Titan at the time of the cosmic event on Earth that gave the Eternals their powers, which means that Thanos doesn't have the same set of powers shared by Ikaris and all the others. Only his father benefited from the effects of the experiment. Interestingly, Thanos is related by blood to Thena (who will be played by Angelina Jolie in the MCU), since she's Zuras' daughter; that means the two characters are actually first cousins. Despite this connection, Thanos has little to do with the Olympian Eternals, and has had limited interaction with them in the comics.

Related: Marvel's Eternals Powers Explained: What Each Team Member Can Do

Like the Earth-based Eternals, the Titanians look just like humans. This includes A'lars, Sui-San, and Thanos' brother, Starfox. So why does Thanos look different to everyone else in his family, not to mention his entire race? That's because Thanos was born with the Deviant Syndrome, making Thanos a genetic rarity among his people. Due to this strange mutation in Thanos's DNA, Thanos has heightened abilities and bears some physical similarities to the Deviants (but is still an Eternal). It's possible that there are other Eternals in the Marvel Universe who have the Deviant Syndrome, but Thanos is the only character confirmed to possess it.

With all this in mind, the question arises,is Thanos an Eternal in the MCU - a full-fledged one, that is? The answer to that question is unclear, but given the popularity of Thanos, it does seem quite possible that Marvel will look to adapt their comic book connection to the big screen. So far, nothing revealed about Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame proves that Thanos isn't an Eternal, so it does seem possible that he could be one of them; it just hasn't been explored yet.

Avengers: Infinity War revealed that Thanos' people, the Titans, became extinct because of an unspecified catastrophe. They were spotted briefly in the movie, but they were too far away to get a proper look at them. It was stated by Infinity War VFX supervisor Matt Aitkin that if the movie had shown more of Thanos' race, audiences would have noticed that the other Titans didn't look like Thanos. They would have had his bright purple skin color, trademark chin, or his towering height. The plan was to present Thanos as a "little bit of a mutant of his own people". This certainly sounds like his Deviant Syndrome from the comics. With this in mind, it makes sense that the MCU's Thanos could be an Eternal with the Deviant gene. This would explain why he doesn't look like the characters from Marvel's upcoming Eternals film.

Will Marvel's Eternals movie even have a chance to establish Thanos as an Eternal? Infinity War already mentioned his father, A'lars, through a reference from Red Skull (Ross Marquand), and the new movie could follow up on that when it explains the history of the Eternals. A mention of the Deviant Syndrome and a flashback showing the Eternals splitting off to settle on Titan would effectively tie one of the MCU's most popular characters to its newest franchise, while simultaneously building on his backstory.

More: The Eternals Could've Defeated Thanos (Without The Avengers)

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Nicholas Raymond is a staff features writer for Screen Rant. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Montevallo. He is the author of the psychological thriller and time travel novel, "A Man Against the World." Nicholas' love for telling stories is inspired by his love for film noir, westerns, superhero movies, classic films, foreign cinema, and wuxia. He also has interests in ancient history. His favorite actors are Tyrone Power, Charlton Heston, and Eleanor Parker. His favorite film is Casablanca, and his favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock. He can be reached by email at cnrmail@bellsouth.net and on Twitter at @cnraymond91.

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How Thanos Is Connected To The Eternals: Story & Species Explained - Screen Rant