Although Ronan was the villain of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), that movie was the first time we got to see Thanos in full length.
The Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe has revolved around Thanos (Josh Brolin) since he was featured in the post-credits scene of The Avengers (2012). Then we could see how he sent Ronan (Lee Pace) to look for the Power Gem that was inside the Orb. But the mad titan did not expect that Ronan end up ambitious for that powerful object and face the Guardians of the Galaxy.
It must be recognized that the presence of Thanos in the movie it is intimidating and we also got to see two of his “daughters” as they are Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan). But if they decided to use it, it was to give more presence to Ronan, as by revealing himself against him, he made him an even more shocking villain. This is how he explained it Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel studios:
“It was to try to serve Ronan in a better way. We put Thanos there so Ronan could tell him to go to hell. For himself to evolve as a villain. There wasn’t much to explain about Thanos. I was just promoting the story of these characters.
The third installment of this peculiar team will have to present a villain at the height.
On Guardians of the Galaxy we could see Ronan already Thanos, while in the second installment of 2017 the villains were EGO (Star Lord’s father) and Ayesha of the sovereigns who have sworn revenge. Now in the third installment that will hit theaters in 2023, we know that it will appear Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), but there will probably be the odd villain like The High Evolutionary. Hopefully soon the director James Gunn reveal more details to us.
The movies where they appear Ronan and Thanos at Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe are available in Disney Plus.