Nowadays, when an actor joins a superhero franchise, they’re looking at multiple years of commitment as their character is threaded into the company’s plan for their next five or ten movies. Robert Downey, Jr. has been a part of the MCU since it began ten years ago, a bunch of the other core Avengers have appeared in multiple films in the series, and many are looking at a few more later on. Which is why, for some actors, when you land a role in a superhero movie that has a finite beginning and end, that’s a gift.

Josh Brolin made it clear that he doesn’t like the concept of signing himself away to a franchise — even though he’s now involved in three: Deadpool, Avengers, and Sicario — in a new interview with Empire magazine (h/t The Playlist). He said he appreciates his two superhero movie roles because there is a end in sight for both characters. Deadpool 2’s Cable will probably stick around for three more movies, and then he’ll be done.

We think about it in four movie terms. We tried to think of Cable as a full arc, not just in this movie, but in the trajectory of four films. That made it a lot more fun for me.

Brolin also explained what drove him to play Thanos, who is a pretty huge character in the MCU but who probably won’t be around for very long.

I don’t like the idea of a franchise, personally. That’s what makes the Thanos thing really great. It’s a finite thing, and I like that.

Spoiler alert, Thanos probably doesn’t win the Infinity War. Or, if he does, it’s not for long.

This is probably the reason why a lot of actors have opted to play villains in recent superhero franchises: they’re a lot less work down the line, given that villains don’t normally stick around past one movie, and they still make you some serious coin. Brolin has found out how to make franchises work to his advantage.

Deadpool 2 hits theaters May 18, and Avengers: Infinity War arrives April 27.

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